Probing graphene \chi(2) using a gold photon sieve

TL;DR

This study demonstrates a novel method to measure the second-order nonlinear susceptibility  of graphene using a gold photon sieve, achieving significant enhancement of second harmonic generation and providing new insights into 2D material nonlinearities.

Contribution

The paper introduces an original approach combining a gold photon sieve and semianalytical computations to quantify graphene's  susceptibility elements.

Findings

Graphene-coated photon sieve enhances second harmonic signal by over two orders of magnitude.

Measured  susceptibility elements are |d_{31} + d_{33}| < 8.1 x 10^3 pm^2/V and |d_{15}| < 1.4 x 10^6 pm^2/V.

The method is applicable to various 2D materials on plasmonic structures.

Abstract

Nonlinear second harmonic optical activity of graphene covering a gold photon sieve was determined for different polarizations. The photon sieve consists of a subwavelength gold nanohole array placed on glass. It combines the benefits of efficient light trapping and surface plasmon propagation in order to unravel different elements of graphene second-order susceptibility \chi(2). Those elements efficiently contribute to second harmonic generation. In fact, the graphene- coated photon sieve produces a second harmonic intensity at least two orders of magnitude higher compared with a bare, flat gold layer and an order of magnitude coming from the plasmonic effect of the photon sieve; the remaining enhancement arises from the graphene layer itself. The measured second harmonic generation yield, supplemented by semianalytical computations, provides an original method to constrain the graphene \chi(2) elements. The values obtained are |d_{31} + d_{33}| < 8.1 x 10^3 pm^2/V and |d_{15}| < 1.4 x 10^6 pm^2/V for a second harmonic signal at 780 nm. This original method can be applied to any kind of 2D materials covering such a plasmonic structure.