Scattering of surface plasmon-polaritons in a graphene multilayer photonic crystal with inhomogeneous doping

TL;DR

This paper investigates how surface plasmon-polaritons in a multilayer graphene structure are scattered at interfaces with different doping levels, revealing complex phenomena like total reflection, transmission, and mode coupling.

Contribution

It introduces a formalism to analyze scattering of surface plasmon-polaritons in doped graphene multilayers with inhomogeneous doping, uncovering rich physical behaviors.

Findings

Total reflection and transmission of plasmon-polaritons at interfaces

Observation of Fabry-Pérot oscillations in the system

Coupling of plasmons to photonic modes

Abstract

The propagation of a surface plasmon-polariton along a stack of doped graphene sheets is considered. This auxiliary problem is used to discuss: (i) the scattering of such a mode at an interface between the stack and the vacuum; (ii) the scattering at an interface where there is a sudden change of the electronic doping. The formalism is then extended to the {\it barrier problem}. In this system rich physics is found for the plasmonic mode, showing: total reflection, total transmission, Fabry-P\'erot oscillations, and coupling to photonic modes.