Device uses graphene plasmons to convert mid-infrared light to electrical signals

A team of researchers has developed a device that uses the material graphene to detect mid-infrared light and efficiently convert it to electrical signal at room temperature. It's a breakthrough that could lead to better communications systems, thermal imagers and other technologies.

Published in Nature Materials, the study is a collaboration between the laboratories of Fengnian Xia, Barton L. Weller Associate Professor in Engineering and Science and F. Javier Garcia de Abajo of The Institute of Photonic Sciences (ICFO), Spain.