Excitation and active control of propagating surface plasmon polaritons in graphene

We demonstrate the excitation and gate control of highly confined surface plasmon polaritons propagating through monolayer graphene using a silicon diffractive grating. The normal-incidence infrared transmission spectra exhibit pronounced dips due to guided-wave resonances, whose frequencies can be tuned over a range of ~80 cm(-1) by applying a gate voltage. This novel structure provides a way to excite and actively control plasmonic waves in graphene and is thus an important building block of graphene plasmonic systems.