Chapter III: Graphene-Based Active Control of Thermal Radiation
3.2 Electronic Control of Polarized Emission
In order to gain full, active control over emitted infrared light, one would like to control not just amplitude, as discussed in the previous section, but additionally polarization and phase (the latter of which will be addressed in Chapters 4 and 7). With this additional layer of control, metasurface polarizers that filter or emit specific polarization states of light may be realized, which can be modulated in real time.
Metasurfaces have recently been utilized to selectively reflect or absorb specific polarization states of light, as well as to convert the polarization state of light152-161. However, none of these structures have been demonstrated to actively modulate the
Applied Gate Voltage
Emission from 50 nm ribbons (250°C)
54 polarization state of light using electrostatic gating, limiting their ultimate utility in reconfigurable photonic devices. In this work, we demonstrate that by taking advantage of the gate-tunability of graphene plasmons, and the two free parameters (width and Fermi energy), active control of the polarization state of light may be achieved in a single structure.
3.2.2 Design of Dual-Resonant Structure for Polarization Control
We design a resonant cavity inspired by the Salisbury Screen concept described in Chapter 2, wherein graphene nanoresonators of different widths are fabricated on a thick silicon cavity terminated with a gold back reflector, on which a thin insulating layer is transferred to allow active gate-tunability, shown schematically in Figure 3.6. Unlike the Salisbury screen, which takes advantage of the λ
4n dielectric resonance (where n is the index of refraction of the cavity), we implement a design based on a thicker, high-index external cavity that supports higher order resonances that span the mid-infrared. In this way, we achieve two goals: the first to narrow the peak width of the resonance, and the second to decrease the free spectral range, both of which scale inversely with cavity thickness.
Figure 3.6: Schematic illustration of graphene-dielectric dual resonant structure for controlling the polarization state of reflected or emitted infrared light. A 7.5 µm thick Si cavity with Au back-reflector results in enhanced absorption in the graphene nanoresonators at the surface.
By carefully selecting the carrier concentration and width of the graphene resonators, it is possible to match different resonators to the mλ
4n dielectric resonances of the cavity, where m is an integer and n the cavity index of refraction, for which simulation results are shown in Figure 3.7 (See Appendix B for simulation parameters). We use 7.5 µm thick Si as the lossless dielectric for the mid-infrared, with a 7 nm thick hexagonal boron nitride (h- BN) gate dielectric sandwiched between the graphene nanoresonators and Si. 200 nm Au serves as a near-ideal back-reflector. The use of a thin h-BN layer allows for electrostatic modulation of the graphene plasmon, in addition to providing a substrate with a decreased density of surface charges, which may increase the graphene mobility.162, 163
VG
hBN
Si
Au
kinc
ksca Or kemit
56
Figure 3.7: Graphene absorption at EF = 0.4 eV normalized to EF = 0 eV for different nanoresonator widths. High order dielectric resonances of the silicon cavity are matched to the plasmon resonances.
Of most interest in this geometry is the selective enhancement of absorption for different resonator widths matched to specific cavity modes. This enables excellent spectral control of absorption with narrow absorption/emission features that can be switched on and off on demand. Moreover, due to the strong dependence of the graphene plasmon frequency on carrier concentration described in previous chapters, it is possible to identify multiple conditions of enhanced absorption by taking advantage of the relations ωp∝W−12 and ωp∝ EF 12. An example of this is shown in Figure 3.8, wherein a graphene resonator of 60 nm is well-matched to the external cavity resonance (11λ
4n) for EF = 0.45 eV, but poorly matched to this for EF = 0.3 eV. The exact opposite trend is observed for a resonator width of 40 nm: for EF = 0.45 eV, minimal absorption is observed, but for EF = 0.3 eV, the plasmon absorption is strongly enhanced. This suggests that we may establish a
“switching” behavior between 40 nm and 60 nm ribbons by changing the graphene Fermi energy.
-5 0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45
Wavelength (μm)
Δ A bs (%)
6 7 8 9 10 11 12
30 nm 40 nm 60 nm 90 nm
Figure 3.8: (a) Tunable absorption in graphene resonators of selected widths (40 and 60 nm) and Fermi energies (0.3 and 0.45 eV) for selectively enhanced absorption. (b – e) Field profiles for each width/EF combination at a wavelength of 9.34 µm.
We can therefore take advantage of this Fermi energy tuning to realize active polarization control of infrared light: by designing a crossed structure comprised of 40 and 60 nm resonators, absorption (and therefore emission) can be enhanced in each arm by switching the graphene Fermi energy from 0.3 to 0.45 eV, shown in Figure 3.9. Moreover, by carefully selecting the dimensions of the unit cell, amplitude compensation can be done to create approximately equal ‘on’ and ‘off’ states for Ex and Ey polarizations.
40nm, EF = 0.3eV 60nm, EF = 0.45eV 40nm, EF = 0.45eV 60nm, EF = 0.3eV
8.5 9.0 9.5 10.0 10.5 45
40 35 30 25 20 15 10 5 0 -5
Wavelength (μm)
Δ Abs (%)
60 nm, EF = 0.3 eV 60 nm, EF = 0.45 eV 40 nm, EF = 0.3 eV 40 nm, EF = 0.45 eV
25nm
60 nm
EF = 0.3 eV
EEo
40 nm
EF = 0.45 eV
25nm 50nm 50nm
20 18 16 14 12 10 8 6 4 2
b. c.
d. e.
a.
58
Figure 3.9: (a) Geometry of graphene crosses for polarization switching and corresponding absorption, (b), normalized to EF = 0 eV for X and Y polarizations as defined in the reference frame of the schematic.
Samples are now being fabricated to experimentally realize these designs. Silicon-on- insulator (SOI) wafers are purchased from Ultrasil with 7.5 µm thick device layers, 200 nm SiO2 (as an etch stop layer), and 300 µm thick handles. Electron beam lithography is used to expose a window on the backside of the handle, and XeF2 is used to etch through to the SiO2. Hydrofluoric acid (HF) is used to remove the SiO2 layer, leaving a suspended Si membrane. Au is then deposited on the backside and h-BN is transferred on the top.
Graphene is then transferred on top of the h-BN and 100 keV electron beam lithography is used to pattern the ribbon or crossed structures.