Mechanism for graphene-based optoelectronic switches by tuning surface plasmon-polaritons in monolayer graphene

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates how tuning the electronic properties of graphene via gate voltage can enable control over surface plasmon-polaritons, leading to potential applications in graphene-based optoelectronic switches.

Contribution

It introduces a mechanism for electrically controlling light reflection and absorption in graphene by exploiting surface plasmon-polaritons, enabling switchable optoelectronic devices.

Findings

Resonant coupling between electromagnetic radiation and surface plasmon-polaritons in graphene.

Electrical control of light reflection and absorption regimes.

Potential for developing graphene-based optoelectronic switches.

Abstract

It is shown that one can explore the optical conductivity of graphene, together with the ability of controlling its electronic density by an applied gate voltage, in order to achieve resonant coupling between an external electromagnetic radiation and surface plasmon-polaritons in the graphene layer. This opens the possibility of electrical control of the intensity of light reflected inside a prism placed on top of the graphene layer, by switching between the regimes of total reflection and total absorption. The predicted effect can be used to build graphene-based opto-electronic switches.