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arXiv · 1505.00127

All-Optical Generation of Surface Plasmons in Graphene

Thomas J. Constant·Samuel M. Hornett·Darrick E. Chang·Euan Hendry
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Abstract

Here we present an all-optical plasmon coupling scheme, utilising the intrinsic nonlinear optical response of graphene. We demonstrate coupling of free-space, visible light pulses to the surface plasmons in a planar, un-patterned graphene sheet by using nonlinear wave mixing to match both the wavevector and energy of the surface wave. By carefully controlling the phase-matching conditions, we show that one can excite surface plasmons with a defined wavevector and direction across a large frequency range, with an estimated photon efficiency in our experiments approaching $10^{-5}$.

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Thomas J. Constant, Samuel M. Hornett, Darrick E. Chang, Euan Hendry. 2015-07-07. All-Optical Generation of Surface Plasmons in Graphene. https://doi.org/10.1038/nphys3545

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