• Number 397  |
• September 16, 2013

Graphene may shed new light on terahertz metamaterials, plasmonics

Could graphene – a one-layer thick sheet of carbon atoms – be the ingredient needed for super-efficient solar harvesting with metamaterials? Or for “light on wire” plasmonic data transmission? In the Aug. 9 issue of Science, Ames Laboratory physicists discussed the potential and challenges of using graphene in metamaterials and plasmonics in terahertz applications, which operate at frequencies between microwave and infrared waves.

Metamaterials are man-made structures that exhibit properties not possible in natural materials, such as refracting light “backward” or absorbing all the light that hits them. Costas Soukoulis and fellow Ames Laboratory physicists Philippe Tassin and Thomas Koschny found that graphene may be a good candidate to replace the metals currently used to build metamaterials.

 “Graphene is a fascinating and promising material because it’s so thin, is very electronically responsive, and has electronic properties that are easily changed,” said Soukoulis. “Our review of the findings shows hurdles to cross before graphene could replace the thin metal films currently used in metamaterials and plasmonics.”

Full story: https://www.ameslab.gov/news/news-releases/graphene-may-shed-new-light-terahertz-metamaterials-and-plasmonics 

[Breehan Gerleman Lucchesi, 515.297.9750,
breehan@ameslab.gov]