Graphene Optical-to-Thermal Converter - SPP7 Abstract Submission Form

Alejandro Manjavacas Department of Physics and Astronomy, Rice University, Houston, USA Sukosin Thongrattanasiri Department of Physics, Kasetsart University, Bangkok, Thailand Jean-Jacques Greffet Laboratoire Charles Fabry, Institut d' Optique, Universite Paris Sud, CNRS, Palaiseau Cedex, France Javier F. García de Abajo Institut de Ciencies Fotoniques, ICFO, Barcelona, Spain Institucio Catalana de Recerca i Estudis Avancats, ICREA, Barcelona, Spain

Infrared plasmons in doped graphene nanostructures produce large optical absorption that can be used for narrow-band thermal light emission at tunable frequencies that strongly depend on the doping charge. By virtue of Kirchhoff`s law, thermal light emission is proportional to the absorption, thus resulting in narrow emission lines associated with the electrically controlled plasmons of heated graphene. Here [1] we show that realistic designs of graphene plasmonic structures can release over 90% of the emission through individual infrared lines with 1% bandwidth. We examine anisotropic graphene structures in which efficient heating can be produced upon optical pumping tuned to a plasmonic absorption resonance situated in the blue region relative to the thermal emission. An incoherent thermal light converter is thus achieved. Our results open a new approach for designing tunable nanoscale infrared light sources.

[1] A. Manjavacas, S. Thongrattanasiri, J. J. Greffet, and F. J. Garcia de Abajo, Appl. Phys. Lett. 105 (2014).

alejandro.manjavacas@rice.edu