Optimizing terahertz surface plasmons of a monolayer graphene and a graphene parallel plate waveguide using one-dimensional photonic crystal

Abstract

Through analytical calculations, the transverse magnetic surface plasmon (SP) dispersion relations for a monolayer graphene and a graphene parallel-plate waveguide (PPWG) in the presence of a one-dimensional photonic crystal (1D PC) as a substrate and a symmetric/asymmetric cladding medium are obtained. For the monolayer graphene case, we show that the presence of the 1D PC leads to significant modification in propagation length (PL) and localization length (LL) of THz SPs, as compared with the SPs of monolayer graphene on SiO2 substrate. And the SPs with largest PL and small LL, named as optimized SPs, could be supported when the 1D PC is used only as a substrate. For the graphene PPWG case with the plate separation “D” (here, 10 nm≤D≤1 μm), in addition to support of typical upper and lower branches of coupled THz SPs, presence of the 1D PC leads to support of an extra branch when 10 nm≪D≤1 μm. Moreover, as far as supporting optimized 0–2 THz SPs are concerned, the case in which the graphene PPWG with D = 1 μm is sandwiched between two symmetric 1D PC could be the best candidate. Whereas the graphene PPWG on the 1D PC, with D = 10 nm, supports optimized SPs in a frequency range from 2 to 4.5 THz. Therefore, using 1D PC improves the capability of monolayer graphene and also graphene PPWG for sensing and waveguide applications in THz frequencies.