Project details
Title:
Nano-scale Development of Plasmonic Amplifiers Based on 2D Materials
Acronym:
PLASNANO
Type:
European
Start Date:
October 1, 2024
End Date:
September 30, 2027
Principal Investigator:
Davide Mencarelli, UnivPM Referent
Other Units Involved:
THALES SA-FRANCE, IHP GMBH – LEIBNIZ INSTITUTE FOR HIGH PERFORMANCE MICROELECTRONICS-GERMANY, IDRYMA TECHNOLOGIAS KAI EREVNAS-GREECE, COMMISSARIAT A L ENERGIE ATOMIQUE ET AUX ENERGIES ALTERNATIVES-FRANCE, BERLINER NANOTEST UND DESIGN GMBH-GERMANY,ODTU MEMS MERKEZI-TURKEY, MIDDLE EAST TECHNICAL UNIVERSITY-TURKEY, TAIPRO ENGINEERING SA-BELGIUM
Keywords:
Carbon based 2D Materials; Terahertz Communication; Terahertz Plasmonics; Amplifiers; Transition Metal Dichalcogenides & Monochalcogenides
Description:
The library of 2D materials is growing at a rapid rate driven by the potential extraordinary electronic applications that they can offer. In parallel, terahertz (THz) technologies has continued to draw a great interest due to the many applications that it can have a profound impact in but has continuously been hindered due to the low power and wide scale applicability of current THz source technologies. THz surface plasmonics is coming in to the forefront as an area which can bridge these two emerging technologies and allow the necessary breakthrough that is needed in the so called THz source gap region of 0.5 – 3 THz.
In this project the goal is to develop architectures which can efficiently amplify THz waves based on surface plasmons in 2D materials. The fundamental attributes that underline this approach reside in the interaction between THz radiation and electrically driven surface plasmons which provides amplification through an exchange of energy and momentum limited only by the properties of the gain medium. Thus the limits of the amplification are governed by limits to the electrical excitation of surface plasmons and how well these surface plasmons couple to the THz radiation.
Objectives:
In this project the goal is to develop architectures which can efficiently amplify THz waves based on surface plasmons in 2D materials. By utilizing novel 2D materials with extraordinary electrical properties based on Transition Metal Dichalcogenides (TMDs) and Transition Metal Monochalcogenides (TMMs) as well as traditional carbon based materials such as graphene we plan to stretch these limits and achieve ground breaking results in terms of amplification and gain by incorporating the developed amplifiers into existing state-of-the-art Silicon – Germanium hetero junction bipolar (HBT) based THz arrays.
Application Contexts:
nano-materials, two-dimensional nanostructures, graphene, inorganic chemistry, metalloids.
Expected Results:
i) 2D material development: optimization of the structure to achieve strong light-plasmon coupling from a SoA SiGe BiCMOS based 1 THz array source. These investigations will also aid in the future development of stand-alone amplifiers which can be integrated into THz sources with other geometries.
ii) Development of Multi-Physics model – from Atomistic to continuum level: the multiphysics computational platform that will be implemented provides an important step beyond the SoA for a deeper understanding of the mechanisms governing THz amplification, which is still a challenging problem, despite the effort made to provide reasonable explanations. PLASNANO will bridge the atomistic level and scale up to the THz-amplifier level and optimise the overall efficiency of conversion from DC to THz power via plasmons/charge interaction.
iii)THz Amplifier Development: PLASNANO will examine the sensitivity of the current-induced THz amplification on many concurring parameters and will make a significant impact for future THz technologies and applications. The cutting-edge research that will be undertaken towards the development of 2D material based plasmonic amplifiers will enable breakthrough applications in terahertz technologies.
Achieved Results:
The project is still running
Project Logo: