Far-field excitation of single graphene plasmon cavities with ultracompressed mode volumes

Science. 2020 Jun 12;368(6496):1219-1223. doi: 10.1126/science.abb1570.

Abstract

Acoustic graphene plasmons are highly confined electromagnetic modes carrying large momentum and low loss in the mid-infrared and terahertz spectra. However, until now they have been restricted to micrometer-scale areas, reducing their confinement potential by several orders of magnitude. Using a graphene-based magnetic resonator, we realized single, nanometer-scale acoustic graphene plasmon cavities, reaching mode volume confinement factors of ~5 × 1010 Such a cavity acts as a mid-infrared nanoantenna, which is efficiently excited from the far field and is electrically tunable over an extremely large broadband spectrum. Our approach provides a platform for studying ultrastrong-coupling phenomena, such as chemical manipulation via vibrational strong coupling, as well as a path to efficient detectors and sensors operating in this long-wavelength spectral range.

Publication types

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