Graphene surface plasmons at the near-infrared optical regime

Qiming Zhang; Xiangping Li; Md Muntasir Hossain; Yunzhou Xue; Jie Zhang; Jingchao Song; Jingying Liu; Mark D Turner; Shanhui Fan; Qiaoliang Bao; Min Gu

doi:10.1038/srep06559

Graphene surface plasmons at the near-infrared optical regime

Sci Rep. 2014 Oct 9:4:6559. doi: 10.1038/srep06559.

Authors

Qiming Zhang¹, Xiangping Li², Md Muntasir Hossain³, Yunzhou Xue⁴, Jie Zhang⁴, Jingchao Song⁵, Jingying Liu⁵, Mark D Turner⁶, Shanhui Fan⁷, Qiaoliang Bao⁸, Min Gu⁹

Affiliations

¹ 1] Centre for Micro-Photonics, Faculty of Science, Engineering and Technology, Swinburne University of Technology, Hawthorn, Victoria 3122, Australia [2] Centre for Micro-Photonics and CUDOS, Faculty of Science, Engineering and Technology, Swinburne University of Technology, Hawthorn, Victoria 3122, Australia [3].
² 1] Centre for Micro-Photonics, Faculty of Science, Engineering and Technology, Swinburne University of Technology, Hawthorn, Victoria 3122, Australia [2].
³ Centre for Micro-Photonics and CUDOS, Faculty of Science, Engineering and Technology, Swinburne University of Technology, Hawthorn, Victoria 3122, Australia.
⁴ Institute of Functional Nano and Soft Materials (FUNSOM), and Collaborative Innovation Center of Suzhou Nano Science and Technology, Soochow University, Suzhou 215123, China.
⁵ Department of Materials Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Monash University, Clayton, Victoria 3800, Australia.
⁶ Centre for Micro-Photonics, Faculty of Science, Engineering and Technology, Swinburne University of Technology, Hawthorn, Victoria 3122, Australia.
⁷ Department of Electrical Engineering, Stanford University, Stanford, California 94305, USA.
⁸ 1] Institute of Functional Nano and Soft Materials (FUNSOM), and Collaborative Innovation Center of Suzhou Nano Science and Technology, Soochow University, Suzhou 215123, China [2] Department of Materials Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Monash University, Clayton, Victoria 3800, Australia.
⁹ 1] Centre for Micro-Photonics, Faculty of Science, Engineering and Technology, Swinburne University of Technology, Hawthorn, Victoria 3122, Australia [2] Centre for Micro-Photonics and CUDOS, Faculty of Science, Engineering and Technology, Swinburne University of Technology, Hawthorn, Victoria 3122, Australia.

Abstract

Graphene has been identified as an emerging horizon for a nanoscale photonic platform because the Fermi level of intrinsic graphene can be engineered to support surface plasmons (SPs). The current solid back electrical gating and chemical doping methods cannot facilitate the demonstration of graphene SPs at the near-infrared (NIR) window because of the limited shift of the Fermi level. Here, we present the evidence for the existence of graphene SPs on a tapered graphene-silicon waveguide tip at a NIR wavelength, employing a surface carrier transfer method with molybdenum trioxides. The coupling between the graphene surface plasmons and the guiding mode in silicon waveguides allows for the observation of the concentrated field of the SPs in the tip by near-field scanning optical microscopy. Thus the hot spot from the concentrated SPs in the graphene layer can be used as a key experimental signature of graphene SPs. The NIR graphene SPs opens a new perspective for optical communications, optical sensing and imaging, and optical data storage with extreme spatial confinement, broad bandwidth and high tunability.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
Research Support, U.S. Gov't, Non-P.H.S.