Room Temperature Tunable Plasmonic-Enhanced Graphene Terahertz Photodetectors

目的：这项拟议的研究旨在开发一种新型的石墨烯光电探测器，它在室温下工作，并利用等离子体共振在太赫兹光谱范围内实现可调的光谱灵敏度。智能优点：石墨烯是一种独特的二维材料，具有改变太赫兹和红外光子学领域的潜力。良好的热电传输特性，包括低比热和弱的电子-声子相互作用，使石墨烯器件具有灵敏的检测和超快的响应时间。虽然单层石墨烯可以产生很小但可测量的光吸收，但结构石墨烯薄膜可以支持集体等离子体激发，显示出更大的光吸收，在共振频率下，可以通过施加栅极电压进行电子调节。这里提出的器件概念可能会导致太赫兹光子学的革命性进步，因为它能够实现可调的室温灵敏度和噪声性能，比现有的探测器技术高出几个数量级。广泛影响：实用的室温太赫兹光检测可能在从制药开发到国土安全和医学成像的许多关键部门产生深远影响，并可能刺激强大的太赫兹技术的发展。此外，我们还提出了一项新的推广活动，将向发展中国家的年轻科学家介绍先进信号恢复的新经济技术。

Objective: The proposed research seeks to develop a new type of graphene photodetector that operates at room temperature and exploits plasmonic resonances to achieve tunable spectral sensitivity throughout the terahertz spectral regime.Intellectual Merit: Graphene is a unique two-dimensional material that has the potential to transform the field of terahertz and infrared photonics. Favorable thermoelectric transport properties, including low specific heat and weak electron-phonon interaction allow for sensitive detection and ultrafast response time in graphene devices. While a single layer of graphene can yield a small, but measurable photoabsorption, structured graphene films can support collective plasmonic excitations that show a far greater photoabsorption, at a resonance frequency that can be electrically tuned through the application of a gate voltage. The device concept proposed here could lead to a transformative advances in terahertz photonics, by enabling tunable room-temperature sensitivity and noise performance that is orders of magnitude superior to existing detector technologies.Broader Impact: Practical room temperature terahertz photodetection could have far reaching impact in a number of key sectors ranging from pharmaceutical development to homeland security and medical imaging, and could spur the development of a robust terahertz technology. Furthermore, we propose a new outreach activity that would introduce young scientists from developing countries to new economical techniques for advanced signal recovery.