Real-space mapping of tailored sheet and edge plasmons in graphene nanoresonators

Plasmons in graphene nanoresonators have many potential applications in photonics and optoelectronics, including room-temperature infrared and terahertz photodetectors, sensors, reflect arrays or modulators1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7. The development of efficient devices will critically depend on precise knowledge and control of the plasmonic modes. Here, we use near-field microscopy8, 9, 10, 11 between λ0 = 10–12 μm to excite and image plasmons in tailored disk and rectangular graphene nanoresonators, and observe a rich variety of coexisting Fabry–Perot modes. Disentangling them by a theoretical analysis allows the identification of sheet and edge plasmons, the latter exhibiting mode volumes as small as 10−8λ03. By measuring the dispersion of the edge plasmons we corroborate their superior confinement compared with sheet plasmons, which among others could be applied for efficient 1D coupling of quantum emitters12. Our understanding of graphene plasmon images is a key to unprecedented in-depth analysis and verification of plasmonic functionalities in future flatland technologies.Peer ReviewedPostprint (author's final draft

Graphene plasmonics

Two rich and vibrant fields of investigation, graphene physics and plasmonics, strongly overlap. Not only does graphene possess intrinsic plasmons that are tunable and adjustable, but a combination of graphene with noble-metal nanostructures promises a variety of exciting applications for conventional plasmonics. The versatility of graphene means that graphene-based plasmonics may enable the manufacture of novel optical devices working in different frequency ranges, from terahertz to the visible, with extremely high speed, low driving voltage, low power consumption and compact sizes. Here we review the field emerging at the intersection of graphene physics and plasmonics.Comment: Review article; 12 pages, 6 figures, 99 references (final version available only at publisher's web site

Acoustic terahertz graphene plasmons revealed by photocurrent nanoscopy

© 2017 Macmillan Publishers Limited, part of Springer Nature. Terahertz (THz) fields are widely used for sensing, communication and quality control. In future applications, they could be efficiently confined, enhanced and manipulated well below the classical diffraction limit through the excitation of graphene plasmons (GPs). These possibilities emerge from the strongly reduced GP wavelength, λ p, compared with the photon wavelength, λ 0, which can be controlled by modulating the carrier density of graphene via electrical gating. Recently, GPs in a graphene/insulator/metal configuration have been predicted to exhibit a linear dispersion (thus called acoustic plasmons) and a further reduced wavelength, implying an improved field confinement, analogous to plasmons in two-dimensional electron gases (2DEGs) near conductive substrates. Although infrared GPs have been visualized by scattering-type scanning near-field optical microscopy (s-SNOM), the real-space imaging of strongly confined THz plasmons in graphene and 2DEGs has been elusive so far - only GPs with nearly free-space wavelengths have been observed. Here we demonstrate real-space imaging of acoustic THz plasmons in a graphene photodetector with split-gate architecture. To that end, we introduce nanoscale-resolved THz photocurrent near-field microscopy, where near-field excited GPs are detected thermoelectrically rather than optically. This on-chip detection simplifies GP imaging as sophisticated s-SNOM detection schemes can be avoided. The photocurrent images reveal strongly reduced GP wavelengths (λ p ≈ λ 0 /66), a linear dispersion resulting from the coupling of GPs with the metal gate below the graphene, and that plasmon damping at positive carrier densities is dominated by Coulomb impurity scattering

Orbital-free density functional theory of out-of-plane charge screening in graphene.

We propose a density functional theory of Thomas-Fermi-Dirac-von Weizs\"acker type to describe the response of a single layer of graphene resting on a dielectric substrate to a point charge or a collection of charges some distance away from the layer. We formulate a variational setting in which the proposed energy functional admits minimizers, both in the case of free graphene layers and under back-gating. We further provide conditions under which those minimizers are unique and correspond to configurations consisting of inhomogeneous density profiles of charge carrier of only one type. The associated Euler-Lagrange equation for the charge density is also obtained, and uniqueness, regularity and decay of the minimizers are proved under general conditions. In addition, a bifurcation from zero to non-zero response at a finite threshold value of the external charge is proved.Comment: 38 pages, 3 figure