Event

I will review my recent work on plasmons in graphene, a naturally appropriate material for studying electron motion at terahertz and mid-infrared frequencies. Graphene plasmons are extremely confined propagating waves (with wavelengths 100 times smaller than light) which have lifetimes up to 500 fs at room temperature, and which can be probed by near field microscopy. Various aspects of these plasmons will be discussed: in-situ tuning and guiding with gate voltages, electrical detection of plasmons, and tuning by the dielectric environment around the graphene. Most recently, we have brought graphene plasmons to a regime where non-trivial electronic physics becomes relevant (quantum effects in non-locality / spatial dispersion). Along these lines, this talk will highlight the future prospects of near field techniques to provide a unique window on the electronic phases and correlations in other semi-metallic and semi-insulating materials.