Optical coupling of surface plasmons between graphene sheets

In this letter, we theoretically investigate the coupling of far-infrared surface plasmon polaritons (SPPs) between spatially separated graphene sheets. By using the finite-difference frequency-domain method, we numerically illustrate the SPP propagation and modulation in the graphene sheets. The coupling of SPPs is employed to design zero insertion loss optical splitters, 1 x 2 digital optical spatial switches, and ultra-compact Mach-Zehnder interferometers with the arm length far below the diffraction limit. The study provides an effective way in designing graphene based high-speed and ultra-compact optoelectronic devices. (C) 2012 American Institute of Physics. [http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.3698133]