Low-loss plasmonic supermodes in graphene multilayers

We investigate the supermodes in arbitrary layers of graphene sheets, which are collective guided modes formed by coupling of surface plasmon polaritons (SPPs) in each graphene sheet. In terms of the dispersion relation, we analyse the effective indexes and mode profiles of the supermodes. Numerical simulations reveal that the supermodes can be well approximated by linear superposition of SPPs in individual graphene sheets. Among all the possible supermodes, there is an interesting one possessing both lowest propagation loss and shortest mode wavelength. The loss of the supermode decreases as the number of layers increases and saturates at about 5 layers. The graphene multilayers may find potential applications in low-loss plasmonic waveguides and so constructed optical devices. (C) 2014 Optical Society of America