A graphene-based surface plasmon sensor

We present the application of graphene as a plasmon sensor. It was found that the electronic transport of chemical vapor deposition CVD-synthesized graphene is sensitive to surface plasmons generated by the illumination of metal nanoparticles. The observed change in electronic conduction can be up to seven times larger than the intrinsic photoresponse of graphene. A study of the mechanism revealed local field-assisted oxygen desorption induced by surface plasmons to be the cause of this intriguing behavior. A detailed investigation of the wavelength and spacing dependence of the plasmon-graphene coupling proves that graphene can be used as a sensitive, high resolution electronic plasmon detector. This finding shows the potential of devices exploiting the novel properties of graphene and surface plasmons.