Infrared to terahertz absorption window in mono- and multi-layer graphene systems

Abstract

We present a theoretical study on optical properties such as optical conductance and light transmission coefficient for mono- and multi-layer graphene systems with AB- and ABC-stacking. Considering an air/graphene/dielectric-wafer structure, the optical coefficients for those graphene systems are examined and compared. The universal optical conductance σ0N=Nπe2/(2h) for N layer graphene systems in the visible region is verified. For N≥3 layer graphene, the mini-gap induced absorption edges can be observed in odd layers AB-stacked multilayer graphene, where the number and position of the absorption edges are decided by the layers number N. Meanwhile, we can observe the optical absorption windows for those graphene systems in the infrared to terahertz bandwidth (0.2–150THz). The absorption window is induced by different transition energies required for inter- and intra-band optical absorption channels. We find that the depth and width of the absorption window can be tuned not only via varying temperature and electron density but also by changing the number of graphene layers and the stacking order. These theoretical findings demonstrate that mono- and multi-layer graphene systems can be applied as frequency tunable optoelectronic devices working in infrared to terahertz bandwidth.