Gate-controlled mid-infrared light bending with aperiodic graphene nanoribbons array

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates how aperiodic graphene nanoribbons can be electrically controlled to steer mid-infrared light beams by engineering their reflection phase profiles, enabling dynamic beam direction control.

Contribution

It introduces a novel aperiodic graphene nanoribbons array design that enables electrical control of mid-infrared light reflection angles through phase engineering.

Findings

Electrical control of reflection angle achieved

Aperiodic nanoribbons enable beam steering

Simulations confirm phase-based light manipulation

Abstract

Graphene plasmonic nanostructures enable subwavelength confinement of electromagnetic energy from the mid-infrared down to the terahertz frequencies. By exploiting the spectrally varying light scattering phase at vicinity of the resonant frequency of the plasmonic nanostructure, it is possible to control the angle of reflection of an incoming light beam. We demonstrate, through full-wave electromagnetic simulations based on Maxwell equations, the electrical control of the angle of reflection of a mid-infrared light beam by using an aperiodic array of graphene nanoribbons, whose widths are engineered to produce a spatially varying reflection phase profile that allows for the construction of a far-field collimated beam towards a predefined direction.