• 文献标题:   Tunable, Grating-Gated, Graphene-On-Polyimide Terahertz Modulators
  • 文献类型:   Article, Early Access
  • 作  者:   DI GASPARE A, POGNA EAA, SALEMI L, BALCI O, CADORE AR, SHINDE SM, LI LH, DI FRANCO C, DAVIES AG, LINFIELD EH, FERRARI AC, SCAMARCIO G, VITIELLO MS
  • 作者关键词:   graphene, modulator, polyimide waveguide
  • 出版物名称:   ADVANCED FUNCTIONAL MATERIALS
  • ISSN:   1616-301X EI 1616-3028
  • 通讯作者地址:   CNR NANO
  • 被引频次:   0
  • DOI:   10.1002/adfm.202008039 EA DEC 2020
  • 出版年:  

▎ 摘  要

An electrically switchable graphene terahertz (THz) modulator with a tunable-by-design optical bandwidth is presented and it is exploited to compensate the cavity dispersion of a quantum cascade laser (QCL). Electrostatic gating is achieved by a metal grating used as a gate electrode, with an HfO2/AlOx gate dielectric on top. This is patterned on a polyimide layer, which acts as a quarter wave resonance cavity, coupled with an Au reflector underneath. The authors achieve 90% modulation depth of the intensity, combined with a 20 kHz electrical bandwidth in the 1.9-2.7 THz range. The modulator is then integrated with a multimode THz QCL. By adjusting the modulator operational bandwidth, the authors demonstrate that the graphene modulator can partially compensate the QCL cavity dispersion, resulting in an integrated laser behaving as a stable frequency comb over 35% of the operational range, with 98 equidistant optical modes and a spectral coverage similar to 1.2 THz. This paves the way for applications in the terahertz, such as tunable transformation-optics devices, active photonic components, adaptive and quantum optics, and metrological tools for spectroscopy at THz frequencies.