ABSTRACT
Graphene is a one-atom-thick material consisting of carbon atoms arranged in a honeycomb lattice. Although its electronic properties have been theoretically known since the 1940s [1], it was only in 2004 that graphene layers were isolated from bulk graphite and transferred onto a silicon substrate [2]. The isolation of graphene and subsequent demonstration of its unique properties, such as superhigh electron mobility, ambipolarity, half-integer quantum Hall effect, thermal stability, optical transparency, and mechanical strength [3,4], have triggered intense theoretical and applied research, with the latter primarily devoted to the realization of ultrafast electronic components [5-8]. The interaction of light with graphene has also attracted substantial interest: as a 2D plasma, graphene supports surface plasmon polaritons (SPPs) with unprecedented connement characteristics, due to the material’s subnanometric thickness and exceptionally long propagation distances, as a result of graphene’s superhigh mobility [9-31]. In addition, graphene was shown to support unique transverse electric (TE) surface modes, inexistent in any other plasmonic material, as a result of the anomalous behavior of its conductivity at frequencies close to the onset of interband electronic transitions [10]. Other electromagnetic applications of graphene include transparent microwave components [32] and nonlinear devices at terahertz (THz) and far-infrared frequencies [33,34].
