About plasmons and plasmonics in graphene

A number of recent experimental and theoretical studies indicate the existence of THz plasmons in graphene. It is also suggested that the existence of such plasmons should be a generic property of ideal graphene, allowing for the generation of surface plasmons, which are the basis of modern plasmonics technologies. We have approached the problem from a numerical side, using ab initio many-electron simulation methods based on density functional theory. We will discuss the general characterization of plasmonic excitations and surface plasmons using such methods, and show results for ideal and defective graphene, which might shed some light on what is actually detected in such systems.