Soft-boundary graphene nanoribbon formed by a graphene sheet above a perturbed ground plane: conductivity profile and SPP modal current distribution

TL;DR

This paper investigates how a graphene sheet above a perturbed ground plane forms a soft-boundary nanoribbon, analyzing conductivity and SPP current distribution to understand mode confinement influenced by ridge parameters and bias voltage.

Contribution

It introduces a novel soft-boundary graphene nanoribbon model formed by a perturbed ground plane and studies its conductivity profile and plasmonic current distribution.

Findings

Conductivity profile depends on ridge parameters and bias voltage.

Mode confinement is influenced by the shape of the soft boundary.

Conditions for mode confinement near the ridge are identified.

Abstract

An infinite sheet of graphene lying above a perturbed ground plane is studied. The perturbation is a two dimensional ridge, and a bias voltage is applied between the graphene and the ground plane, resulting in a graphene nanoribbonlike structure with a soft-boundary (SB) The spatial distribution of the graphene conductivity forming the soft-boundary is studied as a function of the ridge parameters and the bias voltage. The current distribution of the fundamental TM surface plasmon polariton (SPP) is considered. The effect of the ridge parameters and shape of the soft boundary on the current distributions are investigated, and the conditions are studied under which the mode remains confined to the vicinity of the ridge region.