Optics Communications 283 (2010) 3695–3697

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Optics Communications
j o u r n a l h o m e p a g e : w w w. e l s ev i e r. c o m / l o c a t e / o p t c o m

Terahertz absorption window and high transmission in graphene bilayer

H.M. Dong a,⁎, W. Xu a,b, J. Zhang b, Yi-zhe Yuan c
a
Key Laboratory of Materials Physics, Institute of Solid State Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, China
b
Department of Physics, Yunnan University, Kunming, China
c
School of Science, Tianjin University of Science & Technology, 13th Street Teda, Tianjin 300457, China

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: A detailed theoretical study of terahertz (THz) optical absorption and transmission in graphene bilayer is
Received 29 March 2010 presented. Considering an air/graphene/dielectric-wafer system, it is found that there is an absorption
Received in revised form 8 May 2010 window in the range 3–30 THz and the optical transmission is up to 96%. Such an absorption window is
Accepted 11 May 2010
induced by different transition energies required for inter- and intra-band optical absorption in the presence
of the Pauli blockade effect. As a result, the position and width of this THz absorption window depend
Keywords:
Terahertz
sensitively on temperature and carrier density of the system. These results are pertinent to the applications
Absorption window of recently developed graphene systems as novel optoelectronic devices such as THz photodetectors.
Transmission Crown Copyright © 2010 Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
Graphene bilayer

1. Introduction strong intra- and inter-band transitions which can be substantially

Graphene has attracted incessant attention and has been investi-
gated widely in recent years. Owing to its massless Dirac quasi-
particles, unique gapless and linear electronic band structure at low
energy, graphene has become one of the most important research
topics in condensed matter physics, nano-material science and nano-
electronics [1,2]. Moreover, monolayer and bilayer graphene, whose
carrier density can be controlled effectively through a gate voltage
(back gate), exhibits high carrier mobility and ballistic transport over
sub-micron scales even at room temperature [3]. Thus, graphene has
prompted a large number of investigations into graphene based on
high speed electronic devices, such as field-effect transistors [4], p–n
junction [5], and high-frequency devices [6].
Recently the optical and optoelectronic properties of different
graphene systems have been intensively investigated. Up to now, it
was found experimentally that the optical conductance per graphene
layer is a universal value in the visible range [7]. The light
transmittances for monolayer and bilayer graphene are respectively
about 98% and 96% in the visible bandwidth [8]. This important
discovery has resulted in a proposal that graphene materials can be
used to replace conventional indium tin oxide (ITO) electrodes for
making better and cheaper optical displays [9]. It was also shown
experimentally [7] that when the radiation photon energy is smaller
than about 30 THz, there is an optical absorption window. The width
and depth of this window depend strongly on temperature. A very
recent experimental work demonstrated that graphene can have
⁎ Corresponding author.
E-mail address: hmdong@theory.issp.ac.cn (H.M. Dong).
modified via electrical gating, similar to resistance tuning in a
graphene field-effect transistor [10]. These experimental results
suggest that graphene systems can be used not only as advanced
electronic devices but also as optical devices for various applications.
It has been realized that bilayer graphene is of equal importance as
monolayer graphene for both technological applications and funda-
mental science [11]. Therefore, here we present a detailed theoretical
study of the optical properties of graphene bilayer.
2. Theoretical approach
Here we consider that a linearly polarized radiation field is applied
perpendicular to the graphene sheet of a coupled graphene bilayer
system. The corresponding Schrödinger equation can be solved
analytically [12], so that our investigation of graphene bilayer can be
carried out based on their work. The eigenvalue Eλ(k) = λℏ2kK/2m⁎
and eigenfunction ψλk(r) = |k, λ N = 2− 1/2[eiψ, λ]eik⋅ r for a carrier in
bilayer graphene are given respectively. Here eiψ = (k0eiϕ − ke− 2iϕ) / K,
r = (x, y), k = (kx, ky) being the wavevector for a carrier and ϕ is the
angle between k and the x-axis. m⁎ ≈ 0.033m e is the effective mass ffi for
qffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
a carrier in graphene bilayer, K = k2 + k20 −2kk0 cosð3ϕÞ with
pffiffiffi
k0 ≈106 = 3 cm− 1, and here λ = + 1 refers to an electron and λ = −1
to a hole.
The electronic transition rate induced by electron and hole
interactions with the radiation field is calculated using Fermi's golden
rule. The semi-classical Boltzmann equation is employed as the
governing transport equation to study the response of the carriers in
bilayer graphene to the applied radiation field. We apply the usual

0030-4018/$ – see front matter. Crown Copyright © 2010 Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.optcom.2010.05.023
3696 H.M. Dong et al. / Optics Communications 283 (2010) 3695–3697

energy-balance equation approach to obtain the energy transfer rate

of the system, from which we can calculate the optical conductance
σλλ′(f) induced by different transition channels, which reads

σ0 2πf τ π ∞ dkk
σλλ ðf Þ = ∫0 dϕ∫0 2
π2 A2f ð2πf τÞ2 + 1 K ð1Þ
   
× Gþ ðk; ϕÞFλ Eþ ðkÞ 1−Fλ Eþ ðkÞ ;

for the case of intra-band transition, λ = λV= ± and λ = + refer to the

conduction band and λ = − to the valence band and f is the radiation
frequency, τ is the corresponding energy relaxation time, σ0 = e2/(2ℏ) is
the universal conductance, Af = 2πm⁎f/ℏ, and G+(k, φ) = 2(k40 + 4k4)
cos2ϕ − 6kk0(k20 + 2k2)[cosϕ + cos(3ϕ)] + k2k20[13 + 9cos(4ϕ) + 4cos
(2ϕ)]. For inter-band transition, we have σ+−(f) ≃ 0, and
 
2σ0 f τ hf π ∞ dkk
σ− + ðf Þ = S ∫0 dϕ∫0 2 Fig. 1. Contributions from different transition channels (σλλ′) to optical conductance at
πA2f 2 K a fixed temperature T = 150 K and carrier densities ne = 1.5 × 1012 cm− 2 and
ð2Þ nh = 5 × 1011 cm− 2. Here the solid curve is the total optical conductance σ and
G− ðk; ϕÞ σ0 = e2 / 2ℏ.
×   ;
τ2 2πf −ℏkK =m4 2 + 1

with G−(k,ϕ) = (k20 − 2k2 − 2kk0cosϕ)2sin2ϕ and S(x) = F−(−x)[1 −
F+(x)]. Here Fλ(x) is Fermi distribution function for carriers. The warping
of the band is ignored which is only important near zero energy.
We consider that the conducting carriers are electrons with
n0 ∼ 1012 cm− 2 being the electron density in the absence of the radiation
field (or dark density). In the presence of the radiation field, the electron
density is ne = n0 + Δne where Δne ∼ 5 × 1011 cm− 2 is the photo-excited
electron density. Under the condition of the charge number conserva-
tion Δne = nh is the hole density in the presence of radiation field.
Considering air/bilayer graphene/SiO2 wafer systems, we can calculate
the transmission coefficient. The effect of the mismatch of the dielectric
constants between graphene layers and substrate can be included [13].
We also include the effect of the broadening for the scattering states
within the calculation. Such broadening is induced by the energy
relaxation with relaxation time typically τ ∼ 1 ps [14]. The transmission
coefficient for an air/bilayer graphene/dielectric-wafer (SiO2) system
can be evaluated through [15]
rffiffiffiffiffi
ε2 4ðε1 ε0 Þ2
T ðf Þ = pffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi  pffiffiffiffiffi ;
ε1 j ε1 ε2 + ε1 ε0 + ε1 σ ðf Þ =cj2
where ε1 and ε2 = ε∞ are, respectively, the dielectric constants of free
space and the effective high-frequency dielectric constant of the SiO2
substrate, and c is the speed of light in vacuum.
In Fig. 2, the optical conductance and transmission coefficient are
shown as a function of radiation frequency at fixed carrier densities for
different temperatures. Optical conductance and transmission depend
sensitively on temperature. In the experimental work, the optical
conductances measured are very different at different temperatures and
the absorption windows observed experimentally are in agreement with
our findings [7]. For fixed electron and hole densities, the chemical
potential for electrons/holes decreases/increases with increasing tem-
perature. Thus, due to the Pauli blockade effect, the THz absorption
window shifts to higher-frequency regime as shown in Fig. 2. We also
note that a sharper cut-off of the optical absorption at the window edge
can be observed at a lower temperature. The transmission is very high
(up to 96%) for f N 3 THz at different temperatures in graphene bilayer
system.
The optical conductance and transmission coefficient are shown in
Fig. 3 as a function of radiation frequency at a fixed temperature and a
fixed hole density nh for different electron densities ne. Because the
chemical potential for electrons in the conduction band increases with
electron density, the THz absorption window shifts to higher-
ð3Þ
frequency regime with increasing electron density as shown in
Fig. 3. The height of the THz absorption window decreases with
increasing electron density and a sharper cut-off of the optical
absorption at the window edge can be observed for larger electron

3. Results and discussions

In Fig. 1 we show the contributions from different transition

channels to the optical conductance (or absorption spectrum) in bilayer
graphene. We notice the following features: (i) The inter-band
transition contributes to the optical absorption in the high-frequency
regime, whereas the intra-band transitions give rise to the low-
frequency optical absorption. (ii) The optical absorption varies very
weakly with radiation frequency in the high-frequency regime
(f N 1000 THz), whereas the absorption depends strongly on radiation
frequency in the low-frequency regime (f b 500 THz). (iii) The optical
conductance in the high-frequency regime is a universal value σ0 = e2 /
2ℏ for graphene bilayer, in contrast to σ0 = e2 / 4ℏ observed for graphene
monolayer [7,8]. We find that the optical conductance of graphite per
graphene layer is very close to σ0 = e2 / 4ℏ, which has been demon-
strated experimentally [7,8]. (iv) More interestingly, there is an
absorption window in between 3–30 THz bandwidth. This absorption
Fig. 2. Optical conductance and transmission (insert) as a function of radiation
window is induced by the presence of the inter-band (σ−+) and intra- frequency at the fixed carrier densities ne = 1.5 × 1012 cm− 2 and nh = 5 × 1011 cm− 2 for
band (σ++, σ−−) electronic transition events which require different different temperatures T = 10 K (solid curve), 77 K (dashed curve), 150 K (dotted
transition energies. curve) and 300 K (dotted–dashed curve).
 H.M. Dong et al. / Optics Communications 283 (2010) 3695–3697
Fig. 3. Optical conductance and transmission coefficient (insert) as a function of
radiation frequency at a fixed temperature T = 150 K and a fixed hole density
nh = 5 × 1011 cm− 2 for different electron densities ne = 1 × 1012 cm− 2 (solid curve),
1.5 × 1012 cm− 2 (dashed curve), and 2.5 × 1012 cm− 2 (dotted curve).
density. There are also very high transmissions for different carrier
densities in Fig. 3. For a gate-controlled bilayer graphene placed on a
dielectric SiO2 wafer, the electron density in the graphene layer can be
varied by the gate voltage and the corresponding optoelectronic
properties of the device system depend on the gate voltage applied.
This mechanism has been verified by the recent experiments [10]. The
results obtained from this study indicate that there exists a THz
absorption window in the range 3–30 THz in bilayer graphene. The
position and width of this absorption window depend sensitively on
temperature and carrier density of the system. We note that recently
Li et al. investigated experimentally the optical conductivity of such
graphene system [16], and there exist obvious THz absorption
windows at different gated voltages, which are in line with our
results. The strong THz cut-off of the optical conductance at the edge
of the absorption window can be observed for typical sample
parameters at relatively high-temperatures. This finding implies
that bilayer graphene systems can be applied as THz photo detectors
working at relatively high-temperatures (up to room temperature)
for various applications. The interesting features of the optoelectronic
properties for bilayer graphene, such as THz absorption window and
strong THz cut-off of the optical absorption, confirm that the graphene
systems can be used as advanced optoelectronic devices such as THz
photodetectors.
3697
4. Conclusions
We have presented a detailed theoretical study of terahertz (THz)
optical properties of graphene bilayer. The optical conductance and
transmission for an air/graphene/SiO2 system have been calculated in
the presence of the radiation field. We have found and confirmed that:
(i) the universal optical conductance σ0 = e2 / 2ℏ and high transmittance
T0 ∼ 96% can be measured when the radiation frequency f N 1000 THz;
(ii) the very high optical transmission of graphene bilayer demonstrates
that graphene layers can be used as transparency electrode; and (iii)
there is an terahertz optical absorption window in between 3 ∼ 30 THz.
The depth and width of the infrared absorption window depend
sensitively on temperature and dark carrier density in the sample. These
results can be applied to understand and reproduce those measured
experimentally. This confirms that graphene bilayer system can be used
not only as advanced electronic devices but also as novel optical and
optoelectronic devices such as Terahertz phototransistors.
Acknowledgements
This work was supported by the Chinese Academy of Sciences,
Department of Science and Technology of Yunnan Province.
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