278 research outputs found
Resonant Visible Light Modulation with Graphene
Fast modulation and switching of light at visible and near-infrared (vis-NIR)
frequencies is of utmost importance for optical signal processing and sensing
technologies. No fundamental limit appears to prevent us from designing
wavelength-sized devices capable of controlling the light phase and intensity
at gigaherts (and even terahertz) speeds in those spectral ranges. However,
this problem remains largely unsolved, despite recent advances in the use of
quantum wells and phase-change materials for that purpose. Here, we explore an
alternative solution based upon the remarkable electro-optical properties of
graphene. In particular, we predict unity-order changes in the transmission and
absorption of vis-NIR light produced upon electrical doping of graphene sheets
coupled to realistically engineered optical cavities. The light intensity is
enhanced at the graphene plane, and so is its absorption, which can be switched
and modulated via Pauli blocking through varying the level of doping.
Specifically, we explore dielectric planar cavities operating under either
tunneling or Fabry-Perot resonant transmission conditions, as well as Mie modes
in silicon nanospheres and lattice resonances in metal particle arrays. Our
simulations reveal absolute variations in transmission exceeding 90% as well as
an extinction ratio >15 dB with small insertion losses using feasible material
parameters, thus supporting the application of graphene in fast electro-optics
at vis-NIR frequencies.Comment: 17 pages, 13 figures, 54 reference
First-principles modeling of the polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons reduction
Density functional theory modelling of the reduction of realistic
nanographene molecules (C42H18, C48H18 and C60H24) by molecular hydrogen
evidences for the presence of limits in the hydrogenation process. These limits
caused the contentions between three-fold symmetry of polycyclic aromatic
hydrocarbon molecules and two-fold symmetry of adsorbed hydrogen pairs.
Increase of the binding energy between nanographenes during reduction is also
discussed as possible cause of the experimentally observed limited
hydrogenation of studied nanographenes.Comment: 18 pages, 7 figures, accepted to J. Phys. Chem.
Solid-state-concentration effects on the optical absorption and emission of poly(p-phenylene vinylene)-related materials
We present measurements of the optical absorption and emission properties of poly(p-phenylene vinylene) (PPV)-related materials focusing on the differences between molecules isolated by dispersion in an inert host and concentrated molecular films. Optical absorption spectra, photoluminescence (PL) spectra, PL efficiency, and time-resolved PL spectra of dilute blends of PPV oligomers with 2-5 phenylene-phenyl rings are compared with those of dense oligomer and polymer films. In dilute oligomer-poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) blends with high PL efficiency, the PL decay is exponential, independent of both temperature and oligomer length. This implies that the fundamental radiative lifetime of PPV oligomers is essentially independent of oligomer length. Concentrated spin-cast oligomer films and polymers have a faster and strongly temperature-dependent PL decay that approaches that of the dilute oligomer results at low temperature. The differences in PL decay correspond to changes in PL efficiency. The efficiency of the oligomer-PMMA blend is high and only weakly temperature dependent, whereas that of concentrated films is lower and strongly temperature dependent, decreasing by more than a factor of 3 from 10 to 350 K. The quenching of the PL efficiency in concentrated films is due to migration to extrinsic, impurity related centers as opposed to an intrinsic intermolecular recombination process. The PL spectrum of a dilute oligomer blend redshifts substantially, both as the excitation energy is decreased and as the emission time increases. This spectral redshift is due to disorder-induced site-to-site variation and not to diffusion to lower-energy sites. In contrast, no spectral shift with excitation energy or emission time was observed for dense oligomer films
Benzofuran-fused Phosphole: Synthesis, Electronic, and Electroluminescence Properties
International audienceA synthetic route to novel benzofuran-fused phosphole derivatives 3-5 is described. These compounds showed optical and electrochemical properties that differ from their benzothiophene analog. Preliminary results show that 4 can be used as an emitter in OLEDs, illustrating the potential of these new compounds for opto-electronic applications
On-surface synthesis of graphene nanoribbons with zigzag edge topology
Graphene-based nanostructures exhibit a vast range of exciting electronic
properties that are absent in extended graphene. For example, quantum
confinement in carbon nanotubes and armchair graphene nanoribbons (AGNRs) leads
to the opening of substantial electronic band gaps that are directly linked to
their structural boundary conditions. Even more intriguing are nanostructures
with zigzag edges, which are expected to host spin-polarized electronic edge
states and can thus serve as key elements for graphene-based spintronics. The
most prominent example is zigzag graphene nanoribbons (ZGNRs) for which the
edge states are predicted to couple ferromagnetically along the edge and
antiferromagnetically between them. So far, a direct observation of the
spin-polarized edge states for specifically designed and controlled zigzag edge
topologies has not been achieved. This is mainly due to the limited precision
of current top-down approaches, which results in poorly defined edge
structures. Bottom-up fabrication approaches, on the other hand, were so far
only successfully applied to the growth of AGNRs and related structures. Here,
we describe the successful bottom-up synthesis of ZGNRs, which are fabricated
by the surface-assisted colligation and cyclodehydrogenation of specifically
designed precursor monomers including carbon groups that yield atomically
precise zigzag edges. Using scanning tunnelling spectroscopy we prove the
existence of edge-localized states with large energy splittings. We expect that
the availability of ZGNRs will finally allow the characterization of their
predicted spin-related properties such as spin confinement and filtering, and
ultimately add the spin degree of freedom to graphene-based circuitry.Comment: 15 pages, 4 figure
Columnar mesophases of alkylated hexa-peri-hexabenzocoronenes with remarkably large phase widths
Interface state mapping in a Schottky barrier of the organic semiconductor terrylene
In this work we quantitatively map interface states in energy in a Schottky barrier between aluminum and the vacuum sublimed organic semiconductor terrylene. The density map of these interface states was extracted from the, admittance spectroscopy data. They revealed an interface state density of 2 x 10(12). cm(-2)eV(-1) close to the valence band which decreases slightly towards midgap. Additional do measurements show that the semiconductor bulk activation energy is 0.33 eV which may correspond to an acceptor level. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved
- …