Resonant plasmonic terahertz photomixing using interdigital graphene micro-nanoribbon arrays

Abstract

We analyze the generation of the terahertz (THz) radiation in photomixers using the interdigital graphene micro-nanoribbon (GMNR) array excited by modulated light or ultrashort radiation pulses. Replacing the standard metal electrodes by the GMNR array enables in the twofold advantages: an increase in the carrier generation efficiency due to the GMNR optical transparence and the possibility of the resonant excitation of plasmonic oscillations. The latter might lead to especially strong increase in the efficiency of the conversion of the optical signals into the THz radiation if the plasmonic oscillation quality factor is reasonably large.