▎ 摘　　要

The excitation of graphene plasmons (GPs) is presented as an interaction between the GPs and the incident electromagnetic field. In this Letter, the excitation of GPs in a plasmonic system is interpreted as an analogy with the two-level system by taking the two-coupled graphene-covered gratings as an example. Based on the equivalent circuit theory, the excitation of GPs in the graphene-covered grating is equivalent to the resonance of an oscillator. Thus, according to the governing equation, the electric currents at the resonant frequencies for two-coupled graphene-covered gratings correspond to the energy states in a two-level system. In addition, the excitation of GPs in different two-coupled graphene-covered gratings is numerically studied to validate our theoretical model. Our work provides an intuitive understanding of the excitation of GPs using an analogy with the two-level system. (c) 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.