Enhancement of near-infrared absorption in graphene with metal gratings

Graphene has been demonstrated as a good candidate for ultrafast optoelectronic devices. However, graphene is essentially transparent in the visible and near infrared with an absorptivity of 2.3%, which has largely limited its application in photon detection. This Letter demonstrates that the absorptance in a monatomic graphene layer can be greatly enhanced to nearly 70%, thanks to the localized strong electric field resulting from magnetic resonances in deep metal gratings. Furthermore, the resonance frequency is essentially not affected by the additional graphene layer. The method presented here may benefit the design of next-generation graphene-based optical and optoelectronic devices. (C) 2014 AIP Publishing LLC.