NUSOD 2013

Terahertz plasmon resonances in GaN and graphene

Lin Wang, Anqi Yu, Xiaoshuang Chen1, Weida Hu2, and Wei Lu
National Laboratory for Infrared Physics, Shanghai Institute of Technical Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai
200083, China, [email protected]; [email protected]

Abstract on c-plane sapphire or SiC substrate by either metal organic chemical

vapor deposition or molecular beam epitaxy [11]. The grating-gate
The plasmon resonance and tunability have been investigated can be served both as the electrodes controlling the sheet electron
in GaN-based and graphene device, the good agreement between density and polarizer for the incident waves. The AlN/GaN device in
theory and experiments indicate the potentially advantages of
Fig. 1(a) consists of 2μm GaN buffer layer and 5nm AlN barrier layer.
GaN device for filling the terahertz (THz) gap. Stronger resonant
The sheet electron density in the channel can exceeds 3×1013cm-2. As
absorption will lead to the hydrodynamic rectifying of THz
referring to the graphene device, either mechanical cleavage or
radiation in wide spectrum region, paving the way for self-
(chemical vapor deposition) CVD grown on substrate such as SiO2 or
coupling and detection of THz radiation in multiple quantum
SiC can be performed with high material quality [12]. Graphene
systems.
device usually has larger mobility than other III-V material system,
which is benefiting from its two-dimensional properties and zero
I. INTRODUCTION effective mass.
In the last decade, terahertz (THz) technology has attracted great
interest due to its inherent advantage in the applications of biomedical
imaging, security imaging and nondestructive evaluation/quality
control [1] [2]. Conventional detection techniques covering the
spectral region of infrared and microwave rely on the narrow-gap
materials or fast electron response in the field effect transistor.
However, at THz band, the frequency is far beyond the fastest
electron response and below the material’s gap energy. To sense the (a) (b)
THz radiation, detectors available now include bolometers, Schottky
diodes and photoconductive detectors[3][4]. However, these detectors
are not frequency-agile and bulky, which require mechanical motion Fig.1. Schematic of device structures: (a) grating-coupled single-channel
of external optics to generate spectral information [5]. Achieving the AlN/GaN HEMT; (b)Graphene device.
appropriate performance without using highly sophisticated
technologies would be extremely advantageous.
Recently, a new detection mechanism utilizing hydrodynamic III. RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS
nonlinearity of plasma wave (plasmon) in the two-dimensional (2D) Theoretically, the electron mass in graphene is infinitesimal,
channel of field effect transistors (FETs)/high electron mobility while its mobility can reach 106 cm2/Vs. If graphene is electrically
transistors (HEMTs) has been proposed [6]. Since the first doped or chemically doped, the interband transition is suppressed by
demonstration of 2D plasmons and their capability for THz detection, Pauli blocking, so that the Landau damping can be neglected at THz
several kinds of plasmonic devices have been explored and plasmon band. In both the graphene and GaN HEMT, the electron density can
nonresonant/resonant phenomena are observed in the experiment [6- be tuned to a high value.
11]. Of particular interests, these results pave a route to realize large
area focal-plane array THz camera. In order for improving the
performance of plasmonic devices further, more advanced device
structures embedded with antenna are developed such as grating-
coupled large area detector array [12], multiple detectors connected in
series or parallel [2, 13,14], and membrane substrate detectors with
defect electrode [15,16].
The plasma waves in FETs have a linear dispersion, ω=sk, where s
is the wave velocity. The plasma wave velocity s= (e2n/m*C)0.5
depends on the carrier density as controlled by the gate voltage and
the gate-to-channel capacitance per unit area C=ε/4πd. Most of
previous work focus on the GaAs or InP based material system with
deep-submicron meter gate-length operating in the THz/sub-THz
regime (the sheet electron density in the channel of GaAs sample is
usually around 1012cm-2)[9][10]. This paper aims to explore the
potential properties of plasmon resonance in larger area GaN and
Fig. 2. Plasmon resonances in AlN/GaN HEMTs under different gate voltage.
graphene device, such as electrical tunability, resonant strength and its
application in the plasmon-quantum emitter and detection system. Fig. 2 displays the plasmon resonance in GaN HEMT by using
FDTD method as developed in our previous works [11-14]. We found
II. DEVICE DESCRIPTION AND SIMULATIONS that the plasmon resonance can be excited up to 6th order, indicating
the resonant quality factor exceeds 5 even with small mobility values.
Figs. 1 (a) and (b) show the structure of grating-gated single-channel When applying appropriate gate voltage to tune the frequency, the
(SC) and graphene FETs. For GaN device, the structure can be grown electric-field strength is enhanced at resonant frequency due to the

978-1-4673-6310-5/13/$31.00
Authorized licensed use limited to:©2013 IEEE on March
SASTRA. Downloaded 10120,2024 at 04:25:40 UTC from IEEE Xplore. Restrictions apply.
 NUSOD 2013

long range Coulomb interaction. The high electric-field strength is REFERENCES

benefit for improving responsivity of photodetection system or the
emission efficiency of quantum dot and excitons system. Such results [1] N. Pala and M. S. Shur, “Plasma wave terahertz electronics, ”
demonstrate potential advantages against other III-V material for Electronics Letters., vol. 44, pp. 1391, Nov. 2008.
higher THz frequency detection and room temperature operation. [2] T. A. Elkhatib, V. Y. Kachorovskii, W. J. Stillman, D. B. Veksler,
In order to compare better between graphene and GaN for THz K. N. Salama, X.-C. Zhang, “Enhanced plasma wave detection of
plasmonics. Here, we study the tunability of AB-stacking and terahertz radiation using multiple high electron mobility transistors
monolayer graphene as shown in Fig. 1(b)[15]. The simulated connected in series.” IEEE Trans. Micro. Theo. and Tech. vol. 58, pp.
fundamental resonant frequency versus Fermi energy is shown in 331-337, Feb. 2010.
Fig.3. We can see that the plasmon resonance frequency is [3] G. C. Dyer, G. R. Aizin, J. L. Reno, E. A. Shaner, and S. J. Allen,
comparable with GaN device at low Fermi level, however, in AB IEEE Journal of Selected Topics In Quantum Electronics, vol. 17, pp.
graphene device, the frequency is higher than GaN and monolayer 85-91, Jan./ Feb. 2011.
graphene ones. In Fig. 3, the simulated date are fitted by the analytical [4]A. Pleteršek, and J. Trontelj, “A self-mixing NMOS channel-
method, the good agreement between these results indicate almost detector optimized for mm-wave and THz signals,” J. Infrared Milli.
EF1/2 dependence of resonant frequency. While the AB device contains Terahz Waves, vol. 33, pp. 615-626, 2012.
wider tunability than monolayer device, such deviation is caused by [5]E. A. Shaner, A. D. Grine, M. C. Wanke, M. Lee, J. L. Reno, and S.
the different of energy dispersion between monolayer and AB J. Allen, IEEE Photo. Tech. Lett. vol. 18, pp. 1925-1927, Sep. 2006.
stacking layers. [6] M. Dyakonov and M. S. Shur, “Plasma wave electronics: Novel
terahertz devices using two dimensional electron fluid.” vol. 43, pp.
1640-1645, Oct. 1996.
[7] M. Dyakonov and M. S. Shur, “Shallow water analogy for ballistic
field effect transistor : New mechanism of plasma wave generation by
dc current.” vol. 71, pp. 2465-2468, Oct. 1993.
[8]M. Dyakonov and M. S. Shur, “Current instability and plasma
waves generation in ungated two-dimensional electron layers,”
Applied Physics Letters, vol. 87, pp. 111501-1- 111501-3 (2005).
[9] A. EI Fatimy, F. Teppe, N. Dyakonova, W. Knap et al. “ Resonant
and voltage-tunable terahertz detection in InGaAs/InP nanometer
transistors” Applied Physics Letters, vol. 89, pp. 131926-1-131926-3
(2006).
Fig.3. Simulated fundamental resonant frequency of monolayer graphene and [10] F. Teppe, M. Orlov, A. EI Fatimy, W. Knap, J. Torres, V.
AB-stacking bilayer graphene versus Fermi energy. Red circle: simulated Gavrilenko, A. Shchepetov, Y. Roelens, and S. Bollaert, “Room
fundamental resonant frequency of AB-stacking bilayer graphene. Green temperature tunable detection of subterahertz radiation by plasma
square: simulated fundamental resonant frequency of monolayer graphene. Red waves in nanometer InGaAs transistors.” Appl. Phys. Lett., vol. 89, pp.
line: calculated fundamental resonant frequency of AB-stacking bilayer 222109, Nov. 2006.
graphene supposing that it fulfills ωp EF1/2 . Green line: calculated
[11] L. Wang, X. S. Chen, W. D. Hu, W. Lu, “Spectrum analysis of
fundamental resonant frequency of monolayer graphene supposing that it
fulfills ωp EF1/2. 2D plasmon in GaN-based high electron mobility transistors”, IEEE
Journal of Selected Topics In Quantum Electronics, vol.19, 8400507
(2013).
[12]L. Wang, W. D. Hu, X. S. Chen, and W. Lu, “Analysis of
III. CONCLUSIONS interface scattering in AlGaN/GaN/InGaN/GaN double-heterojunction
high-electron-mobility transistors,” Journal of Electronic materials,
A finite-difference method is employed to describe the local response Vol. 41, pp. 2130, May. 2012.
of plasmonic oscillation in AlN/GaN and graphene device. The results [13]L. Wang, W. D. Hu, X. S. Chen, and W. Lu, “The role of ultrathin
indicate wide tunable resonance of these devices for THz detection. AlN barrier in the reduction in the hot electron and self-heating effects
Due to different energy dispersions, the tunability of plasmon for GaN-based double-heterojunction high electron mobility
resonance exhibit different properties. We find AB stacking device transistors, ” J. Appl. Phys., Vol. 108, pp. 054501, Sep. 2010.
can be tuned to frequency higher than 10THz, while below 10THz the [14]L. Wang, X. S. Chen, W. D. Hu, J. Wang, J. Wang, X. D. Wang
GaN device will be the good choice. Such results propose hybrid and W. Lu, “The plasmonic resonant absorption in GaN double-
design of these two materials. channel high electron mobility transistors,” Appl. Phys. Lett., Vol. 99,
pp. 063502, Aug. 2011.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS [15]Eduardo V. Castro, K. S. Novoselov, S. V. Morozov, N. M. R.
Peres, J. M. B. Lopes dos Santos, Johan Nilsson, F. Guinea, A. K.
The authors acknowledge the support provided by the State Key Geim and A. H. Castro Neto, J. Phys.: Condens. Matter 22, (2010) 175503.
Program for Basic Research of China (2013CB632705,
2011CB922004), the National Natural Science Foundation of China
(10990104, 61006090, 61290301, 11274331), the Fund of Shanghai
Science and Technology Foundation (10JC1416100), and Shanghai
Rising-Star Program.

102
Authorized licensed use limited to: SASTRA. Downloaded on March 20,2024 at 04:25:40 UTC from IEEE Xplore. Restrictions apply.