Controlling phase of microwaves with active graphene surfaces

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates a method to actively control the phase and intensity of microwaves using electrically tunable graphene surfaces, enabling dynamic manipulation of electromagnetic wave reflection.

Contribution

The authors introduce a novel graphene-based device structure that achieves electrically tunable phase and absorbance of microwaves, including bidirectional phase control with voltage.

Findings

Achieved >50 dB control of reflected wave intensity.

Realized ~π phase shift tunability around resonance.

Demonstrated bidirectional phase control with voltage polarity.

Abstract

In this letter, we report a method to control reflection phase of microwaves using electrically tunable graphene devices. The device consists of mutually gated large-area graphene layers placed at a quarter-wave distance from a metallic surface. This device structure yields electrically tunable resonance absorbance and step-like phase shift around the resonance frequency when the impedance of graphene matches with the free space impedance. Electrostatic control of charge density on graphene yields an ability to control both intensity (> 50 dB) and phase (~pi) of the reflected electromagnetic waves with voltage. Furthermore, using the asymmetry of the doping at opposite polarity of the bias voltages, we showed bidirectional phase control with the applied voltage. We anticipate that our results will pave a new directions to control interaction of electromagnetic waves with matter for long wavelengths and could open a new avenue for microwave devices.