Graphene | Nature Photonics

News & Views | 30 November 2023

Large-angle twist effect

A large-angle twist between two bilayer graphene films makes a sensitive and broadband infrared–terahertz detector as a result of interlayer screening and a crystal field-induced bandgap.

Bingchen Deng
& Fengnian Xia

Article | 21 September 2023

Ultra-broadband photoconductivity in twisted graphene heterostructures with large responsivity

Thanks to the unique properties of twisted double bilayer graphene heterostructures, an ultra-broadband photoconductivity spanning the spectral range of 2–100 μm with internal quantum efficiencies of approximately 40% at speeds of 100 kHz is reported.

H. Agarwal
, K. Nowakowski
& F. H. L. Koppens

Article | 20 April 2023

Short pulse generation from a graphene-coupled passively mode-locked terahertz laser

A passively mode-locked quantum cascade laser (QCL) is developed by employing a heterogeneous gain medium and integrating graphene saturable absorbers along the entire QCL waveguide. Self-starting optical pulses of 4.0 ps are electrically generated in the 2.30–3.55 THz frequency range.

Elisa Riccardi
, Valentino Pistore
& Miriam S. Vitiello

Article | 25 August 2022

Ultrafast intrinsic optical-to-electrical conversion dynamics in a graphene photodetector

Researchers demonstrated a gate-tunable graphene photodetector with a bandwidth of up to 220 GHz. This was achieved by suppressing the ‘RC’ time constant using a resistive zinc oxide top gate.

Katsumasa Yoshioka
, Taro Wakamura
& Norio Kumada

Letter | 07 July 2022

Giant effective Zeeman splitting in a monolayer semiconductor realized by spin-selective strong light–matter coupling

Researchers show spin-susceptibility in monolayer MoSe₂ and demonstrate giant effective valley Zeeman splitting and nonlinearity for trion-polaritons.

T. P. Lyons
, D. J. Gillard
& A. I. Tartakovskii

Article | 26 May 2022

Spontaneous-polarization-induced photovoltaic effect in rhombohedrally stacked MoS₂

It is shown that rhombohedral stacked MoS₂ can enable scalable photovoltaic effects induced by spontaneous polarization throughout few-micrometre-sized exfoliated flakes. This is exploited in a graphene–MoS₂-based photovoltaic device.

Dongyang Yang
, Jingda Wu
& Ziliang Ye

Article
09 September 2021 | Open Access

All-optical polarization and amplitude modulation of second-harmonic generation in atomically thin semiconductors

All-optical modulation of second-harmonic generation in a monolayer molybdenum disulfide with a modulation depth of close to 100%, and speed limited only by the fundamental pulse duration, is achieved thanks to the crystal symmetry and the deep subwavelength thickness of the sample.

Sebastian Klimmer
, Omid Ghaebi
& Giancarlo Soavi

News & Views | 16 June 2021

Chameleon graphene surfaces

The unique optical properties of graphene were combined with lithium-ion battery technology to produce multispectral optical devices, with colour-changing capabilities.

Andrea C. Ferrari

Article | 24 May 2021

Mid-infrared semimetal polarization detectors with configurable polarity transition

Mid-infrared polarization detectors based on nanoantenna-mediated few-layer graphene are demonstrated. By tuning the orientation of nanoantennas, the polarization ratios vary from positive to negative, and cover values from 1 to ∞/−∞ then to −1.

Jingxuan Wei
, Cheng Xu
& Chengkuo Lee

Letter | 29 April 2021

Giant enhancement of optical nonlinearity in two-dimensional materials by multiphoton-excitation resonance energy transfer from quantum dots

A simple coating of a sub-200-nm-thick quantum dot film on two-dimensional materials can drastically enhance their nonlinear optical responses through nonlinear-excitation resonance energy transfer by a high-efficiency remote dipole–dipole coupling.

Hao Hong
, Chunchun Wu
& Jie Xiong

Letter | 05 April 2021

Multispectral graphene-based electro-optical surfaces with reversible tunability from visible to microwave wavelengths

By converting Li-ion battery into an optical device using graphene electrodes, an electrochemical optical device which enables colour changing ability over the entire wavelength range from visible to microwave is demonstrated.

M. Said Ergoktas
, Gokhan Bakan
& Coskun Kocabas

News & Views | 19 October 2020

A free-electron laboratory coherent X-ray source

Facilities generating coherent X-rays tend to be large scale and costly. Now researchers have demonstrated a parametric and coherent laboratory-scale X-ray source by passing moderately energetic electrons through van der Waals heterostructures.

Ingo Uschmann

Article | 14 September 2020

Tunable free-electron X-ray radiation from van der Waals materials

Tunable X-ray generation, from ultrathin van der Waals materials impacted by relativistic electrons, is demonstrated.

Michael Shentcis
, Adam K. Budniak
& Ido Kaminer

Letter | 01 June 2020

Strong mid-infrared photoresponse in small-twist-angle bilayer graphene

Owing to the superlattice-induced bandgap and superlattice-enhanced density of states, small-twist-angled (<2°) bilayer graphene exhibits a strong gate-tunable photoresponse in the mid-infrared regime of 5 to 12 μm, reaching an extrinsic peak responsivity of 26 mA W⁻¹ at 12 μm.

Bingchen Deng
, Chao Ma
& Fengnian Xia

News & Views | 27 February 2020

Graphene light-field camera

A new light-field imaging scheme, employing stacks of transparent graphene photodetectors, has been demonstrated, providing a path to greatly simplify the otherwise complex three-dimensional imaging.

Khurram Shehzad
& Yang Xu

Letter | 27 January 2020

Attosecond-fast internal photoemission

Femtosecond laser pulses are sent to a graphene/SiC interface to investigate photoinduced charge transfer from graphene to SiC. A charge transfer time of 300 attoseconds is obtained via laser-pulse-duration-dependent saturation fluence determination.

Christian Heide
, Martin Hauck
& Peter Hommelhoff

Letter | 20 January 2020

Ranging and light field imaging with transparent photodetectors

A highly transparent photodetector using graphene as the light-sensing layer, conducting channel layer, gate layer and interconnects enables new approaches for light field photodetection and imaging involving simultaneous detection across multiple focal planes.

Miao-Bin Lien
, Che-Hung Liu
& Theodore B. Norris

News & Views | 20 December 2019

Ultrafast low-energy all-optical switching

The realization of ultrafast integrated opto-optical switches with ultra-low switching energies remains an ongoing challenge. Broadband, silicon-compatible devices relying on gap plasmons and saturable absorption in graphene could pave the way forward.

Viktoriia Rutckaia
& Joerg Schilling

Article | 25 November 2019

Ultrafast and energy-efficient all-optical switching with graphene-loaded deep-subwavelength plasmonic waveguides

All-optical switching with a switching energy of 35 fJ and a switching time of 260 fs is reported in a nanoscale integrated optical circuit.

Masaaki Ono
, Masanori Hata
& Masaya Notomi

News & Views | 22 November 2019

Graphene boost

Using graphene as the ‘metal’ layer improves the localization accuracy of metal-induced energy transfer by nearly tenfold.

Margarida M. Barroso

News & Views | 25 October 2019

Hybridizing graphene and photonic crystal fibre

While the ability to increase the light–matter interaction by depositing graphene inside the air holes of a long length of photonic crystal fibre is worth celebrating, cautious optimism is called for when we begin to discuss the industrialization of graphene-based fibre-optic components.

James Stone

Letter | 30 September 2019

Hot-electron emission processes in waveguide-integrated graphene

Unusual photoemission from graphene is explained by the emission of hot electrons. The findings may lead to integrated photonic devices driven by hot-electron emission.

Fatemeh Rezaeifar
, Ragib Ahsan
& Rehan Kapadia

Letter | 02 September 2019

Graphene-based metal-induced energy transfer for sub-nanometre optical localization

Using graphene as the ‘metal’ layer can increase the localization accuracy of metal-induced energy transfer, enabling axial localization of single emitters and measurement of the thickness of lipid bilayers with ångström accuracy.

Arindam Ghosh
, Akshita Sharma
& Jörg Enderlein

Letter | 12 August 2019

Graphene photonic crystal fibre with strong and tunable light–matter interaction

A hybrid material based on uniform graphene on both the outer surface and inner hole walls of a photonic crystal fibre offers a strong, tunable light–matter interaction and good broadband electro-optic modulation performance under low gate voltage.

Ke Chen
, Xu Zhou
& Zhongfan Liu

Perspective | 20 March 2019

Graphene–semiconductor heterojunction sheds light on emerging photovoltaics

Graphene-on-bulk semiconductors may enable new directions for ultrathin optoelectronics and photovoltaics.

Sanjay K. Behura
, Chen Wang
& Vikas Berry

Article | 18 March 2019

A 90-nm-thick graphene metamaterial for strong and extremely broadband absorption of unpolarized light

Eighty-five per cent absorptivity of unpolarized light over the wavelength range 300–2,500 nm is realized in a 90-nm-thick, 12.5 cm² metamaterial.

Han Lin
, Björn C. P. Sturmberg
& Baohua Jia

Research Highlight | 24 January 2019

Graphene gets gap plasmons

David F. P. Pile

News & Views | 27 July 2018

Adaptive infrared camouflage

Oliver Graydon

News & Views | 28 June 2018

Paper electronics

Noriaki Horiuchi

News & Views | 28 June 2018

Electrically tuned nonlinearity

The demonstration of broadband, electrically tunable third-order nonlinear optical responses in graphene is promising for a host of nonlinear optical applications.

Zhipei Sun

Article | 04 June 2018

Control of semiconductor emitter frequency by increasing polariton momenta

While modifications of emission and absorption rates are commonplace in photonics, similar manipulations of emitter transition frequencies are challenging. Here, 2D polaritons in graphene are predicted to enable non-vertical electronic transitions in a quantum well, controlling the transition frequencies by inducing an effective non-locality.

Yaniv Kurman
, Nicholas Rivera
& Ido Kaminer

Article | 21 May 2018

Gate-tunable third-order nonlinear optical response of massless Dirac fermions in graphene

Third-harmonic generation and four-wave mixing of light can be enhanced in graphene with gate tuning to adjust the doping level. The findings may lead to new graphene-based nonlinear optoelectronic devices.

Tao Jiang
, Di Huang
& Shiwei Wu

News & Views | 22 December 2017

Telecom meets terahertz

Excitation and gate tuning of terahertz plasmons in dual-layer graphene integrated into on-chip telecom photonic waveguides using infrared lasers has now been demonstrated. This may open the door to atomically thick optoelectronic devices for security, tomography or data processing.

Alexey Y. Nikitin

Letter | 11 December 2017

Broadband gate-tunable terahertz plasmons in graphene heterostructures

An all-optical difference frequency process is exploited to generate terahertz graphene plasmons that are tunable over an octave.

Baicheng Yao
, Yuan Liu
& Chee Wei Wong

Article | 30 October 2017

Chalcogenide glass-on-graphene photonics

Exploiting the peculiar properties of graphene, a series of high-performance glass-on-graphene devices, such as polarizers, thermo-optic switches and mid-infrared waveguide-integrated photodetectors and modulators are realized.

Hongtao Lin
, Yi Song
& Juejun Hu

Research Highlights | 01 August 2017

Negative refraction

Noriaki Horiuchi

Research Highlights | 01 August 2017

Laser-defined graphene

David Pile

Letter | 26 June 2017

Electrical 2π phase control of infrared light in a 350-nm footprint using graphene plasmons

Phase velocity of graphene plasmons is electrically controlled in a set-up enabling tuning of the phase between 0 and 2π.

Achim Woessner
, Yuanda Gao
& Frank H. L. Koppens

Article | 29 May 2017

Broadband image sensor array based on graphene–CMOS integration

Graphene–quantum dots on CMOS sensor offers broadband imaging.

Stijn Goossens
, Gabriele Navickaite
& Frank Koppens

News & Views | 28 July 2016

Graphene on paper

David Pile

Interview | 31 March 2016

Flat talk

Fengnian Xia from Yale University shares his opinions with Nature Photonics on the status of research into 2D materials and their prospects for commercial applications.

Rachel Won

Editorial | 31 March 2016

2D materials

Australians call it sticky tape, English name it Sellotape, and some say Scotch tape. Whatever you call it, it is arguably responsible for the theme of this month's focus issue.

Commentary | 31 March 2016

Why all the fuss about 2D semiconductors?

Graphene is no longer alone; a family of atomically thin 2D semiconductors has emerged. Optoelectronics and photonics applications are in their experimental infancy but the future holds much promise.

Andres Castellanos-Gomez

Review Article | 31 March 2016

Optical modulators with 2D layered materials

The recent realization that 2D layered materials could modulate light with superior performance has prompted intense research and significant advances, paving the way for realistic applications.

Zhipei Sun
, Amos Martinez
& Feng Wang

Review Article | 31 March 2016

Photonics and optoelectronics of 2D semiconductor transition metal dichalcogenides

The electronic and optical properties and the recent progress in applications of 2D semiconductor transition metal dichalcogenides with emphasis on strong excitonic effects, and spin- and valley-dependent properties are reviewed.

Kin Fai Mak
& Jie Shan

Letter | 28 March 2016

Ultrafast optical switching of infrared plasmon polaritons in high-mobility graphene

Non-equilibrium photoinduced plasmons in a high-mobility graphene monolayer are investigated at infrared wavelengths.

G. X. Ni
, L. Wang
& D. N. Basov

Letter | 21 March 2016

Real-space mapping of tailored sheet and edge plasmons in graphene nanoresonators

Researchers demonstrate graphene plasmon edge modes at infrared wavelengths. Such modes may offer additional electromagnetic field confinement compared with conventional sheet modes.