Enhanced optical dichroism of graphene nanoribbons

• Type: Article in International Scientific Journal
• Date: 2012

Authors

Hipolito, F (Author) Other; Chaves, AJ (Author) Other; Ribeiro, RM (Author) Other; Vasilevskiy, MI (Author) Other; Pereira, VM (Author) Other; Peres, NMR (Author) Other

Journal

Title: Physical Review B - Condensed Matter and Materials Physics

Vol. 86

ISSN: 1098-0121

Publisher: American Physical Society

Indexing

ISI Web of Knowledge - 17 Citations

Scopus - 16 Citations

Other information

Authenticus ID: P-002-5E5

DOI: 10.1103/physrevb.86.115430

Abstract (EN): The optical conductivity of graphene nanoribbons is analytical and exactly derived. It is shown that the absence of translational invariance along the transverse direction allows considerable intraband absorption in a narrow frequency window that varies with the ribbon width, and lies in the THz range domain for ribbons 10-100 nm wide. In this spectral region the absorption anisotropy can be as high as two orders of magnitude, which renders the medium strongly dichroic, and allows for a very high degree of polarization (up to similar to 85%) with just a single layer of graphene. Using a cavity for impedance enhancement, or a stack of few layer nanoribbons, these values can reach almost 100%. This opens a potential prospect of employing graphene ribbon structures as efficient polarizers in the far IR and THz frequencies.

Language: English

Type (Professor's evaluation): Scientific

No. of pages: 9