Thermal manipulation of plasmons in atomically thin films

摘要

Schematic representation of a thermoplasmonic light modulation system; a plasmon-supporting structure is optically pumped to generate a high electron temperature in an optical absorber placed inside it, thus inducing sizeable variations in the plasmon frequencies and intensities that are in turn translated into a large modulation of scattered probe light. We consider thermoplasmonic systems combining graphene and thin metallic films, in which pumping light is preferentially absorbed by the former; the spectral operation range is indicated for each of these structures. Dependence of the electronic heat capacity of graphene (calculated from Eq. ( ) in Methods for different Fermi energies ) and thin metallic films (obtained from ref. for different thicknesses ) on electron temperature when the lattice temperature remains at the room value  = 300 K. dependence of the chemical potential (solid curves) and Drude weight (dashed curves) in graphene for different Fermi energies (see color code in ). , dependence of the DC scattering rate in graphene and noble metals when the lattice temperature is either (solid curves) or (dashed curves)