Graphene as a Tunable Anisotropic or Isotropic Plasmonic Metasurface

ACS Nano. 2016 May 24;10(5):5499-506. doi: 10.1021/acsnano.6b01944. Epub 2016 Apr 25.

Abstract

We demonstrate a tunable plasmonic metasurface by considering a graphene sheet subject to a periodically patterned doping level. The unique optical properties of graphene result in electrically tunable plasmons that allow for extreme confinement of electromagnetic energy in the technologically significant regime of THz frequencies. Here, we add an extra degree of freedom by using graphene as a metasurface, proposing to dope it with an electrical gate patterned in the micron or submicron scale. By extracting the effective conductivity of the sheet, we characterize metasurfaces periodically modulated along one or two directions. In the first case, and making use of the analytical insight provided by transformation optics, we show an efficient control of THz radiation for one polarization. In the second case, we demonstrate a metasurface with an isotropic response that is independent of wave polarization and orientation.

Keywords: effective surface conductivity; graphene; isotropic metasurfaces; metamaterials; surface plasmons; terahertz; transformation optics; tunable metasurfaces.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't