Recent advances in terahertz photonic technologies based on graphene and their applications

TL;DR

This review discusses recent breakthroughs in graphene-based terahertz photonic technologies, highlighting novel nonlinear, active, topological, and nonreciprocal effects and their potential applications in compact, tunable photonic devices.

Contribution

It introduces new photonic phenomena in graphene beyond linear response, emphasizing their physical mechanisms and potential applications in terahertz photonics.

Findings

Graphene enables nonlinear and active photonic effects at terahertz frequencies.

Potential applications include compact harmonic generators and low-power sensors.

Graphene-based devices can realize topological insulators and nonreciprocal components.

Abstract

Graphene is a unique two-dimensional (2D) material that has been extensively investigated owing to its extraordinary photonic, electronic, thermal, and mechanical properties. Excited plasmons along its surface and other unique features are expected to play an important role in many emerging photonic technologies with drastically improved and tunable functionalities. This review is focused on presenting several recently introduced photonic phenomena based on graphene, beyond its usual linear response, such as nonlinear, active, topological, and nonreciprocal effects. The physical mechanisms and various envisioned photonic applications corresponding to these novel intriguing functionalities are also reported. The presented graphene-based technologies promise to revolutionize the field of photonics at the relatively unexplored terahertz (THz) frequency range. They are envisioned to lead to the design of compact harmonic generators, low-power wave mixers, linear and nonlinear sensors, magnet-free isolators and circulators, photonic topological insulators, modulators, compact coherent optical radiation sources, and subwavelength imaging devices.