GRAPHENE AND OPTICS

The future of electronics and photonics

Graphene

Zero-gap semiconductor A fortifiable bridge between Condensed-

Matter Physics and High-Energy Particle Physics.

Incredibly strong Viable replacement for silicon circuits

Photonics and Graphene Photonics

Anything to do with producing, analyzing, and modifying of light through the use of science and technology.

IBM, Graphene used as an optical receiver operating on a silicon-on-insulator (SOI) substrate.

Berkley, integrated Graphene to fabricate a radio frequency optical modulator

The Future, integrating Graphene as a photodetector in CMOS.

Why Graphene?

PlasmonsSurface plasmons are collective oscillations

of electrons at the surface of a conductor. Plasmons can be excited by photons or electrons.

Traditional plasmonic materialsGold and Silver

○ Large Ohmic losses○ Non-tunability

Why Graphene? Photons in the infrared or terahertz region

can easily be coupled to surface plasmons.Surface Plasmon Polariton surface waveElectric Gating of GrapheneChemical doping

Graphene PlasmonicsPhotonic metamaterialsLight harvestingOptical biosensingTransformation optics

Broadband Polarizer Graphene can selectively support:

Transverse Magnetic electromagnetic SPP surface waves

Transverse Electric electromagnetic SPP surface waves

TE-passWorks on wavelengths from visible to Near-infrared.

TM-pass Alternatively, when properly doped, graphene can

be used for telecommunications in much the same manner.

Broadband Photodetector Traditional photodetectors are effectively

“blind” to photons with energies smaller than the materials energy band gap.

Photodetection and GraphenePhotocarriers behave differently in GrapheneAbsorption of light produces electron-hole pairs

and only has a lifetime of a few picosecondsApplied fields allow these pairs can be

separated and transported to produce a photocurrent

References

Bao, Quiaoliang; Loh Kian Pung; Graphene Photonics, Plasmonics, and Broadband Optoelectronic Devices ACSNano Vol. 6 No. 5 2012

Goerbig, M.O. Electronic properties of graphene in a strong magnetic field Reviews of Moder Physics Vol. 83 2011

Kittel, Charles Introduction to Solid State Physics 8th Ed. John Wiley & Sons 2005