Absorption enhancement and total absorption in a graphene-waveguide hybrid structure

We propose a graphene/planar waveguide hybrid structure, and demonstrate total absorption in the visible wavelength range by means of attenuated total reflectance. The excitation of planar waveguide mode, which has strong near field enhancement and increased light interaction length with graphene, plays a vital role in total absorption. We analyze the origin and physical insight of total absorption theoretically by using an approximated reflectance, and show how to design such hybrid structure numerically. Utilizing the tunability of doped graphene, we discuss the possible application in optical modulators. We also achieve broadband absorption enhancement in near-IR range by cascading multiple graphene-waveguide hybrid structures. We believe our results will be useful not only for potential applications in optical devices, but also for studying other two-dimension materials.