ABSTRACT
Single-atom B or N substitutional doping in single-layer suspended graphene, realized by low-energy ion implantation, is shown to induce a dampening or enhancement of the characteristic interband π plasmon of graphene through a high-resolution electron energy loss spectroscopy study using scanning transmission electron microscopy. A relative 16% decrease or 20% increase in the π plasmon quality factor is attributed to the presence of a single substitutional B or N atom dopant, respectively. This modification is in both cases shown to be relatively localized, with data suggesting the plasmonic response tailoring can no longer be detected within experimental uncertainties beyond a distance of approximately 1 nm from the dopant. Ab initio calculations confirm the trends observed experimentally. Our results directly confirm the possibility of tailoring the plasmonic properties of graphene in the ultraviolet waveband at the atomic scale, a crucial step in the quest for utilizing graphene's properties toward the development of plasmonic and optoelectronic devices operating at ultraviolet frequencies.
ABSTRACT
Plasmonics currently faces the problem of seemingly inevitable optical losses occurring in the metallic components that challenges the implementation of essentially any application. In this work, we show that Ohmic losses are reduced in certain layered metals, such as the transition metal dichalcogenide TaS2, due to an extraordinarily small density of states for scattering in the near-IR originating from their special electronic band structure. On the basis of this observation, we propose a new class of band structure engineered van der Waals layered metals composed of hexagonal transition metal chalcogenide-halide layers with greatly suppressed intrinsic losses. Using first-principles calculations, we show that the suppression of optical losses lead to improved performance for thin-film waveguiding and transformation optics.
