Photonics Science Institute in Barcelona Spain created the latest record of using graphene to limit light

Science and Technology Daily, Beijing, April 23 (Reporter Linlin Fang): According to a recent research report published in the journal Science, researchers at the Photonics Institute of Photonics (ICFO) in Barcelona have created the latest use of graphene to limit light record. They "squeezed" light into a single atomic-sized space, and the results helped to develop ultra-small optical switches, detectors and sensors.

Light can be used as a channel for ultra-fast communication between different parts of a computer chip, as well as for ultra-sensitive sensors or on-chip nanolasers. Scientists have done a lot of research on devices that further reduce control and guide light. New technologies that limit light to the limit space have been evolving, and plasma confinement is one of the ways to limit light. Previous studies have found that metals can compress light below the wavelength range (diffraction limit), but always at the expense of more energy loss.

This time, ICFO researchers collaborated with colleagues at the University of Minho in Portugal and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology to build new nano-optics, including processed heterostructures of single-layer graphene and hexagonal boron nitride, and a series of Metal rods. Excitingly, the plasma can still be excited and free to diffuse in a channel of one atomic thickness.

The research team leader said: "At first, our goal was to find a new method to stimulate the graphene plasma, but by chance, the result was to limit the light to a smaller range. Therefore, we hope to see if it can get an atomic limit record."

The researchers managed to turn the plasmon on and off and found that light can be guided and controlled in channels less than 1 nanometer with only a voltage applied.

Previously, no one thought that reaching the limit of limiting light to an atom would open up a whole new range of applications, such as optical communications and nanoscale optical sensors.

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