Microscopic theory of plasmon-enabled resonant terahertz detection in bilayer graphene

TL;DR

This paper develops a microscopic theory for plasmon-enabled terahertz detection in bilayer graphene, highlighting how quantum capacitance effects and external bias influence the photodetection signal.

Contribution

It introduces a novel theoretical framework for plasma-wave photodetection in bilayer graphene, accounting for local and dynamic dispersion relations and quantum capacitance effects.

Findings

Quantum capacitance modifies the photodetection signal.

External bias controls the photoresponse strength.

Dispersion relation depends dynamically on plasma wave intensity.

Abstract

The electron gas hosted in a two-dimensional solid-state matrix, such as a quantum well or a two-dimensional van der Waals heterostructure, supports the propagation of plasma waves. Nonlinear interactions between plasma waves, due to charge conservation and current convection, generate a constant density gradient which can be detected as a dc potential signal at the boundaries of the system. This phenomenon is at the heart of a plasma-wave photodetection scheme which was first introduced by Dyakonov and Shur for electronic systems with a parabolic dispersion and then extended to the massless Dirac fermions in graphene. In this work, we develop the theory of plasma-wave photodetection in bilayer graphene, which has the peculiarity that the dispersion relation depends locally and dynamically on the intensity of the plasma wave. In our analysis, we show how quantum capacitance effects, arising from the local fluctuations of the electronic dispersion, modify the intensity of the photodetection signal. An external electrical bias, e.g. induced by top and bottom gates, can be used to control the strength of the quantum capacitance corrections, and thus the photoresponse.