Edge-reflection phase directed plasmonic resonances on graphene nano-structures

The phase of graphene plasmon upon edge-reflection plays a crucial role on determining the spectral properties of graphene structures. In this article, by using the full-wave simulation, we demonstrate that the mid-infrared graphene plasmons are nearly totally reflected at the boundary together with a phase jump of approximately 0.27 pi, regardless of the environments surrounding it. Appling this phase pickup, a Fabry-Perot model is formulated that can predict accurately the resonant wavelengths of graphene nano-ribbons. Furthermore, we find that the magnitude of the phase jump will either increase or reduce when two neighboring coplanar graphene sheets couple with each other. This could be used to explain the red-shift of resonant wavelength of periodic ribbon arrays with respect to an isolated ribbon. We provide a straightforward way to uncover the phase jump of graphene plasmons that would be helpful for designing and engineering graphene resonators and waveguides as well as their associated applications. (C) 2014 Optical Society of America