Active plasmonic switching at mid-infrared wavelengths with graphene ribbon arrays

An active plasmonic switch based on single- and few-layer doped graphene ribbon array operating in the mid-infrared spectrum is investigated with theoretical and numerical calculations. It is shown that significant resonance wavelength shifts and modulation depths can be achieved with a slight variation of the doping concentration of the graphene ribbon. The few-layer graphene ribbon array device outperforms the single-layer one in terms of the achievable modulation depth. Our simulations reveal that, by modulating the Fermi-energy level between 0.2 eV and 0.25 eV, a four-layer graphene ribbon array device can achieve a modulation depth and resonance wavelength shift of similar to 13 dB and 0.94 mu m, respectively, compared to similar to 2.8 dB and 1.85 mu m for a single-layer device. Additionally, simple fitting models to predict the modulation depth and the resonance wavelength shift are proposed. These prospects pave the way towards ultrafast active graphene-based plasmonic devices for infrared and THz applications. (C) 2013 AIP Publishing LLC.