Limiting capabilities of two-dimensional plasmonics in electromagnetic wave detection

Abstract

Plasmons in two-dimensional electron systems (2DESs) feature ultrastrong confinement and are expected to efficiently mediate the interactions between light and charge carriers. Despite these expectations, the electromagnetic detectors exploiting 2D plasmon resonance have been so far inferior to their nonresonant counterparts. Here, we theoretically analyze the origin of these failures, and suggest a proper niche for 2D plasmonics in electromagnetic wave detection. We find that a confined 2DES supporting plasmon resonance has an upper limit of absorption cross section, which is identical to that of simple metallic dipole antenna. Small size of plasmonic resonators implies their weak dipole moments and impeded coupling to free-space radiation. Achieving the ``dipole limit'' of the absorption cross section in isolated 2DES is possible either at unrealistically long carrier momentum relaxation times, or at resonant frequencies below units of terahertz. We further show that amendment of even small metal contacts to 2DES promotes the coupling and reduces the fundamental mode frequency. The contacted resonators can still have deep-subwavelength size. They can be merged into compact arrays of detectors responding resonantly to multiple frequencies. Such arrays may find applications in multichannel wireless communications, hyper-spectral imaging, and energy harvesting.