Abstract
Excitation of carriers in graphene nanostructures leads to the formation of terahertz plasmons. The plasmonic response in graphene is intrinsically nonlinear and ultrafast. It features strong field confinement and is governed by the quasi-Fermi level dynamics (and thus by the temperature of carriers). The manipulation and control of plasmons is promising for integrated opto-electronics (namely for THz detection and sensing) with speeds well beyond the gigahertz regime. We will develop various devices based on gated graphene meta-surfaces that will allow us to manipulate the plasmons by the sample morphology and by optical, electrical, and chemical routes to attain full control over their behavior. The concerted use of near-field (local probe) and far-field time-resolved THz spectroscopic techniques will provide a terahertz readout of the charge carrier state, of plasmon resonances, their hotspots, and decays.