Funding agency
US Air Force Office of Scientific Research (AFOSR)
Award number
FA9550-16-1-0188Dates
September 1, 2016-August 31, 2019Description
In recent years, wireless data traffic has drastically increased due to a change in the way we create, share, and consume information. Accompanying this change is a growing demand for high-speed wireless communication, thus wireless Terabit-per-second links are expected to become a reality within the next several years. Consequently, there is a critical need to develop Terahertz (THz)-band (0.1 to 10 THz) communication technologies in order to satisfy the data requirements of future wireless networks. One of the main challenges in the realization of such networks is the lack of truly compact solid-state sources and detectors able to efficiently operate at THz frequencies. The objective of this research is to model, fabricate, and characterize an integrated system capable of sourcing THz signals on demand as well as propagating these signals on- and off-chip. Sourcing will be achieved by making use of the Dyakonov–Shur instability for THz plasmon generation, while the implementation of hybrid high-electron-mobility transistor (HEMT)/graphene structures will allow these plasmons to be efficiently coupled to a graphene antenna. To accomplish these goals, the work has been divided into three complementary thrusts. The specific outcomes of each thrust are as follows. In Thrust 1, we demonstrate a plasmonic nano-transceiver that allows electrical excitation of surface plasmon polariton (SPP) waves at THz-band frequencies. In Thrust 2, we implement a graphene-based plasmonic nano-antenna capable of radiating in the THz band. In Thrust 3, we combine these two components to realize an integrated system based on a novel hybrid graphene-on-HEMT device technology in which THz oscillations in the HEMT are coupled to SPP waves in graphene.http://www.eng.buffalo.edu/~jbird/