Broadband excitation and active control of terahertz plasmons in graphene

A novel broadband technique to effectively launch plasmons along a single graphene layer at terahertz (THz) frequencies is proposed. To this end, the coupling of the electromagnetic wave from a readily available plasmonic waveguide established by a periodically corrugated metallic surface to the graphene sheet is proposed. As will be shown, this technique can significantly surmount the need for efficient excitation of plasmons in graphene. For this purpose, an analytical technique based on transmission line theory is employed to calculate the scattering parameters of the connection of the plasmonic waveguides. In this manner, the gating effects of the graphene waveguide on the input reflection and transmission of the junction are also investigated. For comparison, a full wave numerical simulator is employed.