Plasmonic absorption enhancement in periodic cross-shaped graphene arrays

We present a wavelength tunable absorber composed of periodically patterned cross-shaped graphene arrays in the far-infrared and THz regions. The absorption of the single-layer array can essentially exceed the continuous graphene sheet by increasing the cross-arm width, even for small graphene filling ratio. As chemical potential and relaxation time increase, the absorption can be significantly enhanced. The complementary structure shows higher absorption compared to the original graphene array. Moreover, the wavelength of absorption maximum is angle-insensitive for both TE and TM polarizations. The absorption efficiency can be further improved with double layers of the cross-shaped graphene arrays, which are helpful to design dual-band and broadband absorbers. (C) 2015 Optical Society of America