Graphene-insulator-graphene active plasmonic terahertz devices

This work theoretically explores the perspectives of stacked graphene-insulator-graphene layers as active terahertz devices. Out-of-plane resonant tunneling current between the graphene layers is shown to constitute a gain medium for electron-plasma-waves propagating in the plane of the graphene sheets. The interaction between both phenomena can lead to either stable THz amplification (with power gain >7 dB) or very sensitive terahertz detection (with sensitivity >10(5) V/W) under appropriate device configurations. (C) 2013 AIP Publishing LLC.