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

Nature Photonics volume 13, pages 754–759 (2019)Cite this article

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Abstract

The integration of photonic crystal fibre (PCF) with various functional materials has greatly expanded the application regimes of optical fibre1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12. The emergence of graphene (Gr) has stimulated new opportunities when combined with PCF, allowing for electrical tunability, a broadband optical response and all-fibre integration ability13,14,15,16,17,18. However, previous demonstrations have typically been limited to micrometre-sized samples, far behind the requirements of real applications at the metre-scale level. Here, we demonstrate a new hybrid material, Gr–PCF, with length up to half a metre, produced using a chemical vapour deposition method. The Gr–PCF shows a strong light–matter interaction with ~8 dB cm−1 attenuation. In addition, the Gr–PCF-based electro-optic modulator demonstrates a broadband response (1,150–1,600 nm) and large modulation depth (~20 dB cm−1 at 1,550 nm) under a low gate voltage of ~2 V. Our results could enable industrial-level graphene applications based on this Gr–PCF and suggest an attractive platform for two-dimensional material-PCF.

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Fig. 1: Growth and characterization of Gr–PCF.
Fig. 2: Controlled growth of a uniform graphene film on the hole walls of the PCF.
Fig. 3: Strong light–matter interaction in Gr–PCF.
Fig. 4: Tunable light–matter interaction in Gr–PCF.

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Data availability

The data that support the plots within this paper and other findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the National Key R&D Program of China (2016YFA0200103, 2016YFA0300903, 2016YFA0300804), Beijing Graphene Innovation Program (Z181100004818003, Z161100002116028), NSFC (51432002, 51520105003, 51502077, 51522201, 11474006), Beijing Municipal Science & Technology Commission (Z181100004218006), the National Equipment Program of China (ZDYZ2015-1), the Postdoctoral Innovative Personnel Support Program (BX20180013), The Science and Technology Development Project of Henan Province (182102210029), Zhongyuan Thousand Talents Program of Henan Province, the Young Talents Program of Henan University, the Director, Office of Science, Office of Basic Energy Sciences, Materials Sciences and Engineering Division of the US Department of Energy under contract no. DE-AC02-05-CH11231 (SP2 program), the Academy of Finland (276376, 295777, 312297, 314810), the Academy of Finland Flagship Programme (320167, PREIN), the ERC (834742) and the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme (820423, S2QUIP)

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Author notes

  1. These authors contributed equally: Ke Chen, Xu Zhou, Xu Cheng.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Centre for Nanochemistry, Beijing Science and Engineering Centre for Nanocarbons, Beijing National Laboratory for Molecular Sciences, College of Chemistry and Molecular Engineering, Peking University, Beijing, China

    Ke Chen, Yi Cheng, Yadian Xie & Zhongfan Liu

  2. Institute of Micro/Nano Photonic Materials and Applications, School of Physics and Electronics, Henan University, Kaifeng, China

    Ke Chen

  3. State Key Laboratory for Mesoscopic Physics, Academy for Advanced Interdisciplinary Studies, School of Physics, Peking University, Beijing, China

    Xu Zhou, Xu Cheng, Ruixi Qiao, Can Liu, Wentao Yu, Fengrui Yao & Kaihui Liu

  4. Beijing Graphene Institute (BGI), Beijing, China

    Yi Cheng, Yadian Xie & Zhongfan Liu

  5. Department of Electronics and Nanoengineering and QTF Centre of Excellence, Aalto University, Aalto, Finland

    Zhipei Sun

  6. Department of Physics, University of California at Berkeley, Berkeley, CA, USA

    Feng Wang

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Contributions

Z.L. and K.L. supervised the project. Z.L. and K.C. conceived the material growth. K.L. and X.Z. conceived the optical measurement. K.C. and X.Z. carried out the material growth experiment and optical device measurements. X.C. performed theoretical modelling. K.C., R.Q., Y.C., Y.X., X.Z., C.L. and F.Y. conducted SEM, TEM, AFM and Raman characterizations. W.Y. suggested the optical experiments. F.Y. programmed the measurement software. Z.S. and F.W. suggested the modulator. All authors contributed to the scientific discussion and writing of the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Kaihui Liu or Zhongfan Liu.

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Chen, K., Zhou, X., Cheng, X. et al. Graphene photonic crystal fibre with strong and tunable light–matter interaction. Nat. Photonics 13, 754–759 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41566-019-0492-5

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