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Colossal infrared and terahertz magneto-optical activity in a two-dimensional Dirac material

Nature Nanotechnology volume 14, pages 756–761 (2019)Cite this article

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Abstract

When two-dimensional electron gases (2DEGs) are exposed to a magnetic field, they resonantly absorb electromagnetic radiation via electronic transitions between Landau levels1. In 2DEGs with a Dirac spectrum, such as graphene, theory predicts an exceptionally high infrared magneto-absorption, even at zero doping2,3,4,5. However, the measured Landau-level magneto-optical effects in graphene have been much weaker than expected2,6,7,8,9,10,11,12 because of imperfections in the samples available for such experiments. Here, we measure magneto-transmission and Faraday rotation in high-mobility encapsulated monolayer graphene using a custom-designed set-up for magneto-infrared microspectroscopy. Our results show strongly enhanced magneto-optical activity in the infrared and terahertz ranges, characterized by absorption of light near to the 50% maximum allowed, 100% magnetic circular dichroism and high Faraday rotation. Considering that sizeable effects have been already observed at routinely achievable magnetic fields, our findings demonstrate the potential of magnetic tuning in 2D Dirac materials for long-wavelength optoelectronics and plasmonics.

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Fig. 1: Interband Landau-level transitions in high-mobility encapsulated graphene.
Fig. 2: Analysis of the interband Landau-level transitions.
Fig. 3: Far-infrared/terahertz magneto-transmission in weakly doped graphene.
Fig. 4: Faraday rotation and magnetic circular dichroism due to polarization-dependent Pauli blocking.

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Data availability

The data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.

Code availability

All relevant calculation codes are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.

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Acknowledgements

This research was supported by the Swiss National Science Foundation and the EU Project Graphene Flagship.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Quantum Matter Physics, University of Geneva, Geneva, Switzerland

    Ievgeniia O. Nedoliuk & Alexey B. Kuzmenko

  2. School of Physics and Astronomy, University of Manchester, Manchester, UK

    Sheng Hu & Andre K. Geim

  3. National Graphene Institute, University of Manchester, Manchester, UK

    Sheng Hu & Andre K. Geim

Authors
  1. Ievgeniia O. Nedoliuk
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  2. Sheng Hu
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  3. Andre K. Geim
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  4. Alexey B. Kuzmenko
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Contributions

A.B.K. conceived the experiment. I.O.N. and A.B.K. realized the experimental set-up and performed the experiments. S.H. and A.K.G. provided samples. I.O.N. and A.B.K. wrote the manuscript with input from S.H. and A.K.G. All authors discussed the results.

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Correspondence to Alexey B. Kuzmenko.

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Supplementary Information:

Supplementary Figs. 1–10, Supplementary Table 1, Supplementary refs. 1–24.

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Nedoliuk, I.O., Hu, S., Geim, A.K. et al. Colossal infrared and terahertz magneto-optical activity in a two-dimensional Dirac material. Nat. Nanotechnol. 14, 756–761 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41565-019-0489-8

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