Optically and Electrically Tunable Dirac Points and Zitterbewegung in Graphene-Based Photonic Superlattices

Abstract

We demonstrate that graphene-based photonic superlattices provide a versatile platform for electrical and all-optical control of photonic beams with deep-subwavelength accuracy. Specifically, by inserting graphene sheets into periodic metallo-dielectric structures one can design optical superlattices that posses photonic Dirac points (DPs) at frequencies at which the spatial average of the permittivity of the superlattice, $\bar{\epsilon }$, vanishes. Similar to the well-known zero-$\bar{n}$ bandgaps, we show that these zero-$\bar{\epsilon }$ DPs are highly robust against structural disorder. We also show that, by tuning the graphene permittivity via the optical Kerr effect or electrical doping, one can induce a spectral variation of the DP exceeding \SI{30}{\nano\meter}, at mid-IR and THz frequencies. The implications of this wide tunability for the photonic Zitterbewegung effect in a vicinity of the DP are explored too.

5 pages, 5 figures, to appear in Phys. Rev. B as a Rapid Communication

References in corpus (7)

• Manipulating infrared photons using plasmons in transparent graphene superlattices
• Quantum interference and Klein tunneling in graphene heterojunctions
• Controlling electron-phonon interactions in graphene at ultra high carrier densities
• Observing Zitterbewegung for photons near the Dirac point of a two-dimensional photonic crystal
• Klein Backscattering and Fabry-Perot Interference in Graphene Heterojunctions
• Graphene for terahertz applications
• Plasmonics of coupled graphene micro-structures

Cited by in corpus (7)

• Epsilon-Near-Zero behavior from plasmonic Dirac point: theory and realization using two-dimensional materials
• Tunable and Dual-broadband Giant Enhancement of SHG and THG in a Highly-engineered Graphene-Insulator-Graphene Metasurface
• Computational Analysis of Dispersive and Nonlinear 2D Materials by Using a Novel GS-FDTD Method
• Plasmon-induced nonlinearity enhancement and homogenization of graphene metasurfaces
• Anderson localization in metallic nanoparticle arrays
• Universal behavior of dispersive Dirac cone in gradient-index plasmonic metamaterials
• Finite-size effects in wave transmission through plasmonic crystals: A tale of two scales