Graphene "compresses" light at a single atomic scale to help develop ultra-small sensors

Schematic of nano-optics: Light (plasma) is extruded between metal/hexagonal boron nitride and graphene.

According to a recent study published in the journal Science, researchers at the Photonics Institute of Photonics (ICFO) in Barcelona, ​​Spain, have created the latest record of using graphene to limit light. They "squeezed" light into a single atom-sized space, and the results helped to develop ultra-compact optical switches, detectors and sensors .

Light can be used as a channel for ultra-fast communication between different parts of a computer chip, as well as for ultra-sensitive sensors or on-chip nanolasers. Scientists have done a lot of research on devices that further reduce control and guide light. New technologies that limit light to the limit space have been evolving, and plasma confinement is one of the ways to limit light. Previous studies have found that metals can compress light below the wavelength range (diffraction limit), but always at the expense of more energy loss.

This time, ICFO researchers collaborated with colleagues at the University of Minho in Portugal and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology to build new nano-optics, including processed heterostructures of single-layer graphene and hexagonal boron nitride, and a series of Metal rods. Excitingly, the plasma can still be excited and freely diffused in a channel of one atomic thickness.

The research team leader said: "At first, our goal was to find a new method to stimulate the graphene plasma, but by chance, the result was to limit the light to a smaller range. Therefore, we hope to see if it can Get an atomic limit record."

The researchers managed to turn the plasmon on and off and found that light can be guided and controlled in channels less than 1 nanometer with only a voltage applied.

Previously, no one thought that it would reach the limit of limiting light to an atom, and the study would open a whole new set of applications, such as optical communications and nanoscale optical sensors .

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