Graphene Whisperitronics: Transducing Whispering Gallery Modes into Electronic Transport

Area of Science:

• Condensed Matter Physics
• Quantum Electronics
• Materials Science

Background:

• Relativistic charge carriers in graphene confined in circular cavities exhibit whispering gallery modes (WGMs).
• These WGMs create rich geometrical patterns in the local density of states, offering potential for novel quantum devices.
• Transducing WGMs to external electrodes for device applications remains an underexplored area.

Purpose of the Study:

• To experimentally probe whispering gallery modes (WGMs) in graphene electronic transport.
• To demonstrate the feasibility of creating and manipulating WGMs in a graphene device.
• To establish a proof of concept for graphene whisperitronic devices.

Main Methods:

• Creation of a circular p-n island in graphene using a polarized scanning gate microscope tip.
• Probing WGM signatures via in-plane electronic transport measurements.
• Theoretical analysis using tight-binding simulations and the exact solution of the Dirac equation.

Main Results:

• Successfully assigned measured conductance features to specific WGMs.
• Demonstrated mode selectivity by spatially displacing the p-n island relative to a constriction.
• Confirmed the existence and detectability of WGMs in graphene electronic transport.

Conclusions:

• This study provides the first experimental evidence of whispering gallery modes in graphene electronic transport.
• The results validate the concept of graphene whisperitronic devices.
• This work opens new avenues for developing disruptive quantum devices based on graphene WGMs.