Imaging Stacking-Dependent Surface Plasmon Polaritons in Trilayer Graphene

TL;DR

This study uses nano-infrared imaging to explore how stacking order in trilayer graphene affects surface plasmon polaritons, revealing significant differences in plasmon behavior linked to electronic structure, with implications for IR nano-optics.

Contribution

It provides the first detailed real-space imaging and analysis of stacking-dependent plasmonic responses in trilayer graphene using s-SNOM.

Findings

Plasmon wavelength differs significantly between ABA and ABC stacking.

Strong plasmon reflection occurs at the ABA/ABC junction due to impedance mismatch.

Plasmonic responses are directly linked to electronic structures of TLG.

Abstract

We report a nano-infrared (IR) imaging study of trilayer graphene (TLG) with both ABA (Bernal) and ABC (rhombohedral) stacking orders using the scattering-type scanning near-field optical microscope (s-SNOM). With s-SNOM operating in the mid-IR region, we mapped in real space the surface plasmon polaritons (SPPs) of ABA-TLG and ABC-TLG, which are tunable with electrical gating. Through quantitative modeling of the plasmonic imaging data, we found that the plasmon wavelength of ABA-TLG is significantly larger than that of ABC-TLG, resulting in a sizable impedance mismatch and hence a strong plasmon reflection at the ABA/ABC lateral junction. Further analysis indicates that the different plasmonic responses of the two types of TLG are directly linked to their electronic structures and carrier properties. Our work uncovers the physics behind the stacking-dependent plasmonic responses of TLG and sheds light on future applications of TLG and the ABA/ABC junctions in IR plasmonics and planar nano-optics.