Interaction of graphene monolayer with the photonic modes of a TeraHertz metamaterial

Federico Valmorra(1), Giacomo Scalari(1), Curdin Maissen(1), Wangyang Fu(2), Christian Schoenenberger(2), Jong Won Choi (3), Hyung Gyu Park(3), Matthias Beck(1), Jerome Faist(1)

(1)    Institute for Quantum Electronics, ETH Zurich, Switzerland
(2)    Department of Physics, University of Basel, Switzerland
(3)    Department of Mechanical and Process Engineering, ETH Zurich, Switzerland

Graphene with its linear dispersion relation near the charge neutrality point and its high carrier mobility reveals itself a promising 2D electron system for cavity QED. We present here preliminary data showing interaction between a metasurface of TeraHertz-split ring resonators (THz-metamaterial) and a single graphene monolayer investigated with THz-Time Domain Spectroscopy (THz-TDS) in the frequency range 500GHz-3THz. The presence of the graphene shifts the absorption resonances of the THz-metamaterial towards lower energies, broadens their shapes and increases the transmitted radiation. Further investigations in the magnetic field  are expected to show strong coupling between the cyclotron transition in the graphene monolayer  and the photonic modes of the THz-metamaterial, in analogy to what shown with multiple 2Dimensional Electron Gases[1], leading to the instability of the ground state of the coupled system [2].


[1] G. Scalari et al., Ultrastrong Coupling of the Cyclotron Transition of a 2D Electron Gas to a THz Metamaterial, Science  vol.335, pp.1323-1326 (2012). [DOI:10.1126/science.1216022]
[2] D. Hagenmller, C.Ciuti , Cavity QED of the cyclotron electron transition, arXiv:1111.3550 (2011)

Acknowledgements: Swiss National Science Foundation, National Centre of Compentence in Research - Quantum
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