Graphene Fabricated Into Nanoribbons May Replace Fiber Optics, Improve Tech Applications

Fiber optics is considered the present-day standard for maximum-speed data transmissions, but in designing the infrastructure of the future, the all-carbon, superbly thin, adaptable graphene should be the material that could further improve performance.

In the study, "Using Bottom-Up Lithography and Optical Nonlocality to Create Short-Wave Infrared Plasmonic Resonances in Graphene," published in ACS Photonics, researchers from the University of Wisconsin-Madison fabricated graphene into the smallest ribbon structures using a technique that simplifies the scaling-up process. In experiments with the tiny ribbons, the researchers indicated they were closing in on necessary properties to position graphene to be of better use in enhancing telecommunications equipment.

Graphene Material Bordering into the Telecommunications Range

The researchers created a scalable fabrication method to make the smallest graphene ribbon structures and discovered that it borders into the telecommunications range with an additional modest decrease in width.

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Graphene is touted as a revolutionary, impressive material for telecommunications and solar cells with its ease-of-use, cheap, and unique physical capabilities, including being both an insulator and conductor of electric current.

Once altered to engage with higher energy light, graphene could also be utilized for telecommunication signal modulation at the fastest speeds, a Phys.Org article said.

Cutting Graphene to Nanoscale Ribbons Shows Potential Capabilities

To enhance graphene's immense potential is to cut it into the nanoscale, microscopic ribbon structures that serve as small antennas that interact with light. The smaller the "antenna," the greater energies of light it can interact with. Such nano-"antennas" can also be tuned to interface with various light energies, with the application of electric fields, improving its performance even further.

The researchers first sought to build a device made of graphene ribbons that were the narrowest ever made. Developing ribbon-shaped polymers on top of graphene and discarding surrounding material, the scientists were left with precisely drawn, incredibly thin graphene layers. Using the fabricated devices, the researchers experimented with how the ribbons interacted with light and how efficiently they could control such interaction.

They discovered that with a decreasing ribbon width, the resonant wavelength of light also decreases. These lower wavelengths of light tantamount to higher energies, a Science Daily article said. Their devices thus interacted with the greatest measured energies ever for structured graphene.

The scientists were likewise able to tune the ribbons by augmenting the electric field strength applied to the nanostructures, further decreasing the resonant wavelength of the structures. They found out that one structure has the flexibility required for the technology applications they wanted.

The experimental data and the forecasted behaviors of structured graphene were then compared through three different ribbon widths and three electric field intensities. The researchers discovered that the wider ribbons were similar to the forecasted behaviors.

"Blue shift" to Higher Energies Show Massive Potential for Graphene Nanostructures

However, for narrower ribbons, the researchers saw what they call a "blue shift" or a move to greater than expected energies. The blue shift occurs since electrons in the smaller ribbons are expected to interact with or repel each other.

The blue shift, researchers said, showed that telecommunications wavelengths could be attained with much bigger structures than they previously expected, which is around eight to 10 nanometers.

Researchers are fixing fabrication techniques that could build even narrower ribbons as they near the eight-to-ten nanometer goal. Such novel graphene nanostructures will open the door for explorations into the basic physics of light-matter interactions, an area the researchers are pursuing.