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Updated: May 9, 2026

Design, Fabrication, and Experimental Characterization of Plasmonic Photoconductive Terahertz Emitters
Published on: July 8, 2013
Plasmon-enhanced photothermoelectric conversion in chemical vapor deposited graphene p-n junctions
1Center for Nanochemistry, Beijing National Laboratory for Molecular Sciences (BNLMS), State Key Laboratory for Structural Chemistry of Unstable and Stable Species, College of Chemistry and Molecular Engineering, Peking University, Beijing 100871, PR China.
Abstract:
Graphene p-n junctions grown by chemical vapor deposition hold great promise for the applications in high-speed, broadband photodetectors and energy conversion devices, where efficient photoelectric conversion can be realized by a hot-carrier-assisted photothermoelectric (PTE) effect and hot-carrier multiplication. However, the overall quantum efficiency is restricted by the low light absorption of single-layer graphene. Here, we present the first experimental demonstration of a plasmon-enhanced PTE conversion in chemical vapor deposited graphene p-n junctions. Surface plasmons of metallic nanostructures placed near the graphene p-n junctions were found to significantly enhance the optical field in the active layer and allow for a 4-fold increase in the photocurrent. Moreover, the utilization of localized plasmon enhancement facilitates the realization of efficient PTE conversion of graphene p-n junction devices under global illumination, which may offer an avenue for practical applications of graphene-based photodetectors and solar cells.
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