Columbia researchers recently announced that they were the first to use the static charge between 2D atomic layers to provide a new route for generating graphene plasmon polaritons without an external power source or chemical dopants.
Among graphene's many unique properties is the ability to support highly confined electromagnetic waves coupled to oscillations of electronic chargeâplasmon polaritonsâthat have potentially broad applications in nanotechnology, including biosensing, quantum information, and solar energy. However, in order to support plasmon polaritons, graphene must be charged by applying a voltage to a nearby metal gate, which greatly increases the size and complexity of nanoscale devices.
This work allows us to use graphene as a plasmonic material without metal gates or voltage sources, making it possible to create stand-alone graphene plasmonic structures for the first time, said co-PI James Hone, Wang Fong-Jen Professor of Mechanical Engineering at Columbia Engineering.
All materials possess a property known as a work function, which quantifies how tightly they can hold on to electrons. When two different materials are brought into contact, electrons will move from the material with the smaller work function to the material with the larger work function, causing the former to become positively charged and the latter to become negatively charged. This is the same phenomenon that generates static charge when you rub a balloon against your hair.
a-RuCl3 is unique among nanomaterials because it has an exceptionally high work function even when it is exfoliated down to a one- or few-atom-thick 2D layer. Based on this, the researchers created atomic-scale stacks consisting of graphene on top of a-RuCl3. As expected, electrons were removed from the graphene, making it highly conductive and able to host plasmon polaritonsâwithout the use of an external gate.
Using a-RuCl3 to charge graphene brings two main advantages over electrical gating. a-RuCl3 induces much greater charge than can be achieved with electrical gates, which are limited by breakdown of the insulating barrier with the graphene. In addition, the spacing between graphene and the underlying gate electrode blurs the boundary between charged and un-charged regions due to electric field fringing. This prevents realization of sharp charge features within the graphene and along the graphene edge necessary to manifest novel plasmonic phenomena. In contrast, at the edge of the a-RuCl3, the charge in the graphene drops to zero on nearly the atomic scale.
One of our major achievements in this work is attaining charge densities in graphene roughly 10 times larger than the limits imposed by dielectric breakdown in a standard gated device, said the study’s lead PI Dmitri Basov, professor of physics. Moreover, since the a-RuCl3âthe source of electronic chargeâis in direct contact with graphene, the boundaries between the charged and uncharged regions in the graphene are razor-sharp. This allows us to observe mirror-like plasmon reflection from these edges and to create historically elusive one-dimensional edge plasmons that propagate along the graphene edge. The team also observed sharp boundaries at nano-bubbles, where contaminants trapped between the two layers disrupt charge transfer.
We were very excited to see how abruptly the graphene charge density can change in these devices, said Daniel Rizzo, a postdoctoral research scientist with Basov and the lead author on the paper. Our work is a proof-of-concept for nanometer charge control that was previously the realm of fantasy.
The researchers are now pursuing routes to use etched a-RuCl3 as a platform for generating custom nanoscale charge patterns in graphene to precisely tune the plasmonic behavior according to various practical applications. They also hope to demonstrate that a-RuCl3 can be interfaced with a wide range of 2D materials to access novel material behaviors that require the exceptionally high charge density imparted by interlayer charge transfer demonstrated in their work.
Hone noted, When our interlayer charge transfer technique is combined with existing procedures for patterning 2D substrates, we can easily generate tailor-made nanoscale charge patterns in graphene. This opens up a wealth of new opportunities for new electronic and optical devices.
This work was carried out in collaboration with scientists at the Max Planck Institute, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, University of Tennessee, National Institute for Materials Science in Tsukuba, Japan, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Flatiron Institute, Universidad del Pais Vasco UPV/EHU, San Sebastian, Spain and the University of California San Diego.