SGPCM · Switching graphene-plasmon with phase-change materials
Horizon 2020 — Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions
- Duration
- 2017-01-01 → 2019-02-04
- EU contribution
- €170,122
- Participants
- 1
- Scheme
- MSCA-IF
Lines connect the coordinator with its partners.
Results in brief
Switching graphene-plasmon with phase-change materials
Propagating graphene plasmon polaritons are electromagnetic waves originating from collective oscillations of graphene electrons coupled to photons, which enable strong confinement and the electric control of electromagnetic fields at extreme subwavelength-scale dimensions. For that reason, they have great application potential in the fields of infrared bio-sensing and optical signal processing at deep subwavelength scale. The project “SGPCM” aimed to image, control and switch the propagation of graphene plasmon polaritons with the help of controlling the structural phase of a phase change material (PCM), particularly chalcogenide the GeSbTe (GST) alloy, which could provide the basic understanding for developing non-volatile switchable, ultracompact plasmonic devices. Moreover, the project aimed on exploring polaritons and their potential applications in other two dimensional (2D) materials and nanostructures made out of them, such as phonon polaritons in hexagonal boron nitride (hBN).
Data: CORDIS, © European Union
Project objective
Graphene plasmons (GPs) enable the transport and control of light on an extreme subwavelength scale as well as the dynamic tunability via electric-gate voltage, which can be exploited for numerous applications such as for strong light-matter interactions, tunable infrared biosensing and absorption spectroscopy, subwavelength optical imaging, as well as for the development of tunable transformation optics devices, metamaterials and metasurfaces. However, electric GP tuning still has the limitations that could hinder potential applications. First, the electric-gate tuning of GPs is a volatile method, i.e. the tuned states of GPs cannot be kept without the applied bias. Consequently, GP electro-optic devices like plasmonic switches cannot provide the storable ‘on-’ and ‘off-’ states for low-energy-consuming signal control and processing. Second, the electric-gate tuning is usually slow, which cannot switch or modulate the GPs in an ultrafast time scale. In this proposal, we want to demonstrate that switchable phase change materials can offer a simple way to circumvent those two limitations and provide GPs with non-volatile, ultrafast and all-optical switching functionalities. These new functionalities would significantly enhance the application potential of GPs in the fields of optical sensing, all-optical plasmonic signal processing including modulation, switching and computing, and memory and digital metasurface and metamaterials.
Original text from CORDIS.
Participants
- ASOCIACION CENTRO DE INVESTIGACION COOPERATIVA EN NANOCIENCIAS CIC NANOGUNE · San SebastianCoordinatorSpain
Links
- View on CORDIS
- DOI: 10.3030/705960
- https://ec.europa.eu/research-and-innovation/en/projects/success-stories/all/controlling-light-nanoscale-thanks-graphene
- https://www.nanogune.eu/projects/sgpcm-switching-grapheme-plasmon-phase-change-materials
Data: CORDIS, © European Union