Maximum modulation of plasmon-guided modes by graphene gating

The potential of graphene in plasmonic electro-optical waveguide modulators has been investigated in detail by finite-element method modelling of various widely used plasmonic waveguiding configurations. We estimated the maximum possible modulation depth values one can achieve with plasmonic devices operating at telecom wavelengths and exploiting the optical Pauli blocking effect in graphene. Conclusions and guidelines for optimization of modulation/intrinsic loss trade-off have been provided and generalized for any graphene-based plasmonic waveguide modulators, which should help in consideration and design of novel active-plasmonic devices.