Electrically controllable plasmon induced reflectance in hybrid metamaterials

Abstract

The tunable plasmon induced reflectance (PIR) effect has been numerically investigated and experimentally realized by hybrid metal-graphene metamaterials. The PIR effect is produced by two parallel strips of gold (Au) and controlled electrically by applying the gate voltage to the graphene layer. The PIR response is generated by the weak hybridization of two bright modes of the gold strips and tuned by changing the Fermi level (Ef) of the graphene. The total shift of 211.7 nm was achieved in the reflection peak by applying only 3 V. This concept of real time electrical tuning of PIR, with a modulation depth of ∼49% and a spectral contrast ratio of 66.6%, can be used for designing optical switches, optical modulators, and tunable sensors.