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PHOTONICS

Hot plasmons make graphene shine

Nature Materials volume 20, pages 721–722 (2021)Cite this article

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Bright hot plasmon emission is observed in graphene due to the ultrafast relaxation of hot carriers that were excited by femtosecond laser pulses of visible light.

The ultrafast carrier dynamics of graphene have been in the spotlight ever since it was realized that the associated physical phenomena are quite distinct from those in conventional materials. Moreover, one can exploit these processes for novel optoelectronic device functionalities. Graphene combines an ultralow electronic heat capacity with strong carrier–carrier interactions and relatively weak coupling between the electronic and phononic systems. As a result, when graphene carriers are excited, for example by an ultrashort laser pulse, carrier–carrier interactions take place on an ultrafast timescale of ten femtoseconds1, leading to efficient redistribution of energy in the electronic system. This typically leads to the formation of a hot-carrier distribution with an increased carrier temperature2. The interaction of charge carriers with optical and acoustic phonons in graphene, and substrate phonons, which occurs on a (sub)picosecond timescale at room temperature, reduces the carrier temperature. Carrier cooling through radiation of light can, in principle, also occur, and indeed some thermal (Planckian) radiation of the hot-carrier system has been observed3. This, however, is not an efficient process — it cannot compete with cooling via phonon emission. A more efficient process is near-field radiation into phonon modes of nearby materials4, or radiative transfer to nearby graphene5. However, no light is emitted in these cases.

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Fig. 1: Artistic impression of the bright hot plasmon emission process.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. ICFO-Institut de Ciencies Fotoniques, The Barcelona Institute of Science and Technology, Castelldefels (Barcelona), Spain

    Frank H. L. Koppens

  2. ICREA – Institució Catalana de Recerça i Estudis Avancats, Barcelona, Spain

    Frank H. L. Koppens

  3. Catalan Institute of Nanoscience and Nanotechnology (ICN2), BIST & CSIC, Campus UAB, Bellaterra (Barcelona), Spain

    Klaas-Jan Tielrooij

Authors
  1. Frank H. L. Koppens
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  2. Klaas-Jan Tielrooij
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Correspondence to Frank H. L. Koppens.

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The authors declare no competing interests.

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Koppens, F.H.L., Tielrooij, KJ. Hot plasmons make graphene shine. Nat. Mater. 20, 721–722 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41563-021-00952-1

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