Electrical Excitation Pathways for

Graphene Plasmons
Kelvin Ooi*, C. Y.
Collaborators:
Hsieh, Dawn Tan,
H. S. Chu, W. S. Koh
and L. K. Ang*
IHPC, A*STAR
SUTD, Singapore
Singapore
Frontiers in Optics,
23rd Oct 2014
*kelvin_ooi@sutd.ed
u.sg;
*ricky_ang@sutd.ed
u.sg
idc.sutd.edu.sg

Contents

Introduction to graphene
plasmonics

Electrical graphene plasmon

sources
Aloof

electron-beam excitation
of graphene plasmons
Electron-tunneling excitation of
graphene plasmons
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Plasmonics: light at the surface

of metal-dielectric boundaries

The interaction of light (photons) and electron plasma

gives rise to the phenomena of surface plasmons.

With its surging popularity

since the year 2000,
plasmonics now permeates
the technologies of our
everyday lives, which include
telecommunications,
computing, microscopy,
biotechnology, and medicine.

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Graphene Plasmonics: 2D
Plasmons

Plasmonic phenomena is also seen in graphene when

graphene is doped to exhibit metallic-like behaviour.
However, being on 0.33nm thick (atomic thickness),
graphene exhibits 2D plasmons which have some
properties different from 3D plasmons.

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Plasma frequency, dispersion

relations

Graphene possesses a 2-D optical conductivity which is described

by the Kubo formula [L. A. Falkovsky, J. Phys.: Conf. Ser. 129 (2008)]

E
ie 2 2k BT E F
1
( )
ln 2 exp F 1

2 ( i 1 ) 2k BT

ie 2
4

k BT

( i 2 ) 2 E F
i
1 ( i 2 ) 2 E F

0.5 tan
ln

2
2

2
k
T
2

( i 2 ) 2 E F 2k BT

Consequently, there is a plasmon vector, q-dependence for

graphenes plasma frequency when fitted into the Drude-model [S.
Das Sarma et al., Rev. Mod. Phys. 83 (2011)].

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Plasma frequency, dispersion

relations (contd)

After performing Drude-model fitting, graphenes dispersion relation is

obtained as:

d
c

2 d 0 c

Consequently, q is very high and we can

obtained very well-confined and welldefined plasmons, at the expense of
short propagation lengths, compared to
metal plasmons.
These properties will have implications
on the electron excitation system we will
study later.

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Aloof electron-beam excitation of

graphene plasmons

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Aloof-scattering of free electrons

can generate SPP

A high-velocity electron
travelling parallel/nontouching trajectory and
near to a metal surface
can excite surface
plasmon polaritons.
[J. Lecante, Y. Ballu, and D.
M. Newns, Phys. Rev. Lett.
38, 3640 (1977)].
The main excitation occurs
at the intersection of the
electron velocity line and
the SPP dispersion line.

Metals

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Graphene

Requirements for SPP

generation

Aloof-electrons can only couple to a minimum SPP momentum given by

k SPP

hf
v

The main excitation occurs at the intersection of the electron velocity line
and the SPP dispersion line
Example: SPP generation on bulk aluminium

Higher velocity electrons excite lower energy SPPs

Lower velocity electrons excite more electrostatic plasmons

d m
c d m

More energetic

More electrostatic
virtually inaccessible region
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Loss probability and loss

function

The loss probability for aloof-scattering excitation is given as

[F. J. Garcia de Abajo, Rev. Mod. Phys. 82, 209 (2010)]

rp
2e 2 L
2z
SP
K0
Im
2
v
v
0 d
Electron velocity term,
measures how readily the
electron is able to transfer
energy per unit trajectory

Impact parameter term,

measures distance- and
momentum-dependent
interaction between electron
and sample

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Loss-function term, measures

how readily the material is able
to accept energy transfer

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Loss probability and loss

function (contd)

The loss-function for bulk metals is

written as:

rp

0 d

Im

Due to large p, loss-function is

iq
generally small.
d 2 d1
We write graphene rp as:

rp 16

Im
0s
0 d

rp

Then,

In general, for the same

frequency, the loss-function for
graphene is more than 5orders larger than bulk metals.

, x

0
iq
d1 d 2
0

0e 2 EF
, s d

Im

0 d
m

2
1

2
2
0 p 1 x d

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10 27 E F2 [eV 2 ]

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Performance of graphene vs.

metals

With low required

electron velocities and
high loss-functions at a
given excitation
frequency and
momentum, graphene
generally outperforms
metals in generating
SPPs.

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Simulation done by VORPAL

Ag bulk (0.45c)

Ag 1nm (0.16c)

Simulation of plasmon wave vector =

40 rad/m
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Simulation done by VORPAL

Graphene 0.2eV (0.018c)

Graphene 0.4eV (0.026c)

Simulation of plasmon wave vector =

40 rad/m
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Applications Tunable terahertz

radiation

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Inelastic electron tunnelling (IET)

excitation of graphene plasmons

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Inelastic electron tunnelling

excitation of surface plasmons
(IETP)

There is increasing attention in search

of viable in-situ plasmon sources to
replace current optical coupling
methods involving bulky optical
components.
Inelastic electron tunnelling is
nanoscale and potentially a lowpowered device
Currently several groups are actively
researching STM-excitation of surface
plasmons

P. Bharadwaj, A. Bouhelier, and L.

Novotny, Phys. Rev. Lett. 106, 226802
(2011).
T. Wang, E. Boer-Duchemin, Y. Zhang, G.
Comtet, and G. Dujardin, Nanotechnology
22, 175201 (2011).

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IETP mechanism

Prevailing theory in a 3step mechanism

1.
2.
3.

Electron tunnelling Gap

plasmon
Gap plasmon SPP
SPP radiation

Mechanism experimentally
confirmed:
.
.

[S. Ushioda, J. E. Rutledge, and R. M. Pierce,

Phys. Rev. Lett. 54, 224226 (1985)];
[P. Bharadwaj, A. Bouhelier, and L. Novotny,
Phys. Rev. Lett. 106, 226802 (2011)].

We study 2 structures in general: MIM

exp 2qd 0
and MIG
L

L 0

R 0

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iq
iq
L 0 R 0
exp 2qd 0
0
0

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IETP theory and results:

Tunnelling from an Al tip

Set up the tunnelling currents through the electrode

wave-functions:

ie
R L L R

2m

After that, set up the electric fields through the charge

distributions:

4 z
z,

Gap plasmon power is simply found by:

Pgap plasmon 2 Re E J dz

We found that graphene in general have very

high IETP powers, 10x larger than metals.

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Well-defined plasmons

Plasmons are well-defined when they

have a narrow linewidth.
Graphene plasmons are well-defined and
have higher peak powers for each q value

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FDTD simulations on SPP

coupling and radiation

Using FDTD to obtain the SPP spectrum, we superimpose both SPP and gap-plasmon
spectra to get the coupling efficiency (normalized by effective propagation length)

Al-air-Graphene

Al-air-Ag
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Acknowledgments:
SUTD-MIT IDC grants IDD21200103 and IDG21200106

Thank You!
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