Analog Computing Using Graphene-based Metalines

TL;DR

This paper presents a novel graphene-based metaline platform for ultra-compact analog computing, capable of performing differentiation and integration with high efficiency on a planar, nanoscale device.

Contribution

It introduces the concept of metalines for wave manipulation and demonstrates their use in performing mathematical operations using graphene plasmons, significantly reducing device size.

Findings

Achieved high-efficiency mathematical operations with a compact design

Device length is about 60 times shorter than previous structures

Simulated outputs closely match analytical results

Abstract

We introduce the new concept of "metalines" for manipulating the amplitude and phase profile of an incident wave locally and independently. Thanks to the highly confined graphene plasmons, a transmit-array of graphene-based metalines is used to realize analog computing on an ultra-compact, integrable and planar platform. By employing the general concepts of spatial Fourier transformation, a well-designed structure of such meta-transmit-array combined with graded index lenses can perform two mathematical operations; i.e. differentiation and integration, with high efficiency. The presented configuration is about 60 times shorter than the recent structure proposed by Silva et al.(Science, 2014, 343, 160-163); moreover, our simulated output responses are in more agreement with the desired analytic results. These findings may lead to remarkable achievements in light-based plasmonic signal processors at nanoscale instead of their bulky conventional dielectric lens-based counterparts.