Nanofocusing of acoustic graphene plasmon polaritons for enhancing mid-infrared molecular fingerprints

Mid-infrared (mid-IR) optical spectroscopy of molecules is of large interest in physics, chemistry, and biology. However, probing nanometric volumes of molecules is challenging because of the strong mismatch of their mid-infrared absorption and scattering cross-sections with the free-space wavelengt...

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Detalhes bibliográficos
Autores: Voronin, Kirill V., Aseguinolaza Aguirreche, Unai, Hillenbrand, Rainer, Volkov, Valentyn S., Alonso González, Pablo, Nikitin, Alexey Y.
Formato: artículo
Fecha de publicación:2020
País:España
Recursos:Universidad del País Vasco
Repositorio:Addi. Archivo Digital para la Docencia y la Investigación
OAI Identifier:oai:addi.ehu.eus:10810/50003
Acesso em linha:http://hdl.handle.net/10810/50003
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palavra-chave:graphene plasmon
molecular sensing
nanofocusing
Descrição
Resumo:Mid-infrared (mid-IR) optical spectroscopy of molecules is of large interest in physics, chemistry, and biology. However, probing nanometric volumes of molecules is challenging because of the strong mismatch of their mid-infrared absorption and scattering cross-sections with the free-space wavelength. We suggest overcoming this difficulty by nanofocusing acoustic graphene plasmon polaritons (AGPs) - oscillations of Dirac charge carriers coupled to electromagnetic fields with extremely small wavelengths - using a taper formed by a graphene sheet above a metallic surface. We demonstrate that due to the appreciable field enhancement and mode volume reduction, the nanofocused AGPs can efficiently sense molecular fingerprints in nanometric volumes. We illustrate a possible realistic sensing scenario based on AGP interferometry performed with a near-field microscope. Our results can open new avenues for designing tiny sensors based on graphene and other 2D polaritonic materials.