Ferroelectric-Gated Terahertz Plasmonics on Graphene

Abstract

Inspired by recent advancement of low-power ferroelectic-gated memories and transistors, we propose a design of ferroelectic-gated nanoplasmonic devices based on graphene sheets clamped in ferroelectric crystals. We show that the two-dimensional plasmons in graphene strongly couple with the phonon-polaritons in ferroelectrics at terahertz frequencies, leading to characteristic modal wavelength of the order of 100--200 nm at only 3--4 THz. By patterning the ferroelectrics into different domains, one can produce compact on-chip plasmonic waveguides, which exhibit negligible crosstalk even at 50 nm separation distance. Harnessing the memory effect of ferroelectrics, low-power electro-optical switching can be achieved on these plasmonic waveguides.