Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Victor Acero
Graphene Use in Nanoscale Photonics and Optics
Abstract
Human progress through the eons has been categorized by the materials that defined that
specific era; it can be seen by our categorization of human progress as the Stone, Bronze, Iron,
and now Silicon Age. However, many, including myself, would argue that the next age is that of
nanomaterials, within that realm 2D materials will lead. The exploitation of the unbelievably
small and bizarre quantum world will herald new success and advances for humanity, and in light
of that this review paper will chose to focus in on Graphene, being the first 2D material to be
made. In order to make this review a concise one only its potential in the field of Nanoscale
Photonics and Optics will be discussed in depth, along with a brief but fulfilling background on
graphene itself. The technologies of interest for which graphene can be used to improve them are
Quantum Dots, LEDs, Solar Cells, Wave Guides, and even Biosensors(1-13).
QDs are far more fluorescent than LEDs and open the door, due to their small size, to flexible
electronics. However their uses can also be biomedical, because they are also far more
fluorescent than typical fluorophores so they would be drastically better for tagging proteins or
other biological molecules(5).
Solar Cells
In the quest for renewable and sustainable energy solar cell technology has been research
extensively. However, even though solar panels have been able to achieve efficiencies of 10-15%
it is impossible to achieve a 100% efficiency solar cell, disregarding thermodynamic
impossibilities, because of the need to optimize between
having a semiconducting material with a small bandgap
capable easily being jumped by electrons but a weak voltage
or a large band gap and a strong voltage(8). Optimization
between these and many more factors has landed solar cells
in this range of efficiency. Furthermore, there is a quest to
make them not only more efficient but light and durable as
well, for added convenience to regular consumer use.
Currently perovskites, a structure of calcium titanium oxide,
are a huge hit with the research community and efficiencies
of ~50 percent have been reached by perovskite/silver
nanowire solar cells(11). However, these perovskite based
solar cells use an electron collection layer that requires
sintering at 500 C, which greatly hinders low cost
production, application on plastic substrates, and application
with multijunction devices. Thin film devices such as
perovskite based meso-superstructure solar cells (MSSCs)
Figure 5: An SEM of the structure typically use titanium oxide or zinc oxide as the electron
of this device is shown (a). A collection layer, because they can avoid shunting and leakage
computer generated schematic of
the device is shown (b). current under an applied reverse bias. However they need to
achieve high crystallinity first, so as to achieve high charge
mobility, but this requires the high temperature sintering. This is were graphene nanoflakes can
be incorporated and greatly reduce the sintering temperature needed for the electron collection
layer to be made(6-8).
The University of Oxfords Dr. Nicholas was able to show superior performance of an electron
sensitive material made from both graphene nanoflakes (GNF) and titanium oxide(TO). The
graphene flakes were made from liquid phase sonication (LPS), which is a more complex
method of mechanical exfoliation that can yield higher quality sheets (in terms of impurities) of
on average 5 layers. The titanium oxide and GNF were mixed and sintered at 150 degrees
Celsius, which is drastically lower than the temperatures usually used to sinter the TO. The
reason hypothesized for this is that TO attaches to the GNF and the individual GNF then are in
contact with each other which allows for the high electron mobility of graphene to be exploited,
while also using the ability of TO generate electrons(11). The heightened charge mobility due to
graphenes properties allows composite to not require a high temperature to create a good crystal
structure of pure TO, which is what would normally allow for a good charge mobility to be
achieved. The research even showed that the GNF and TO mixture was able to generate higher
voltages and currents than most high temperature sintered TO layers used in other solar cells
(Though of course there are some newer cells that performed much better, this simply signifies
the superiority over common perovskite based solar cells)(8). The GNF and TO interaction also
aids mobility, because it lowers the recombination resistance present in the layer. The
recombination resistance is lowered because the TO undergo an efficient electron transfer to
graphene, at which point the majority electron density will reside in the graphene and the TO will
be left depleted(12). This matters because this layer is directly in contact with the a perovskite
layer, but with TO coating on the GNF, the GNF arent actually contacting the perovskite only
the depleted TO are contacting the perovskite(1).
Conclusion
Hopefully this review is capable of summarizing the discovery of graphene, the advancements in
the fabrication of graphene, the physics of graphene, and lastly the wide array of research areas
and potential applications of graphene in the field of nanophotonics and nanooptics.This paper
was mostly to focus on scope in order to give an idea of potential of the material, not so much on
a singular technology and the details of the underlying physics at play. This broad overview
hopefully yields a more creative understanding of the material and inspiration for potential
research applications for graphene.
As much as I have praised the abilities of
graphene it is worth noting that there is
currently vast amounts of research in finding
other 2D materials. This is being done in
order to discover if there is an easier to
fabricate 2D material or perhaps even a
material with a more tunable bandgap than
that of graphene. However, graphene still
holds as the most versatile and preferred 2D
material, especially in terms of applicability
to industry.
Figure 9: Graphic displaying the wide array of 2D materials. Discussing these in depth was simply far
out of the scope of the review.
References
1. Geim, A. K. (2009). Graphene: status and prospects. Science (New York, N.Y.),
324(5934), 15304. http://doi.org/10.1126/science.1158877
2. Geim, A. K., & Novoselov, K. S. (2007). The rise of graphene. Nature Mater., 6(3), 183
191. http://doi.org/10.1038/nmat1849
3. Homola, J., Yee, S. S., & Gauglitz, G. (1999). Surface plasmon resonance sensors:
review. Sensors and Actuators B: Chemical, 54(1-2), 315. http://doi.org/10.1016/S0925-
4005(98)00321-9
4. Liu, M., Yin, X., Ulin-Avila, E., Geng, B., Zentgraf, T., Ju, L., Zhang, X. (2011). A
graphene-based broadband optical modulator. Nature, 474(7349), 6467.
http://doi.org/10.1038/nature10067
5. Bacon, M., Bradley, S. J., & Nann, T. (2014). Graphene Quantum Dots. Particle &
Particle Systems Characterization, 31, 415428. http://doi.org/10.1002/ppsc.201300252
6. Lui, C. H., Liu, L., Mak, K. F., Flynn, G. W., & Heinz, T. F. (2009). Ultraflat graphene.
Nature, 462(7271), 339341. http://doi.org/10.1038/nature08569
7. Nair, R. R., Blake, P., Grigorenko, A. N., Novoselov, K. S., Booth, T. J., Stauber, T.,
Geim, A. K. (2008). Universal Dynamic Conductivity and Quantized Visible Opacity of
Suspended Graphene. Science (New York, N.Y.), 320, 1308.
http://doi.org/10.1126/science.1156965
8. Wang, J. T. W., Ball, J. M., Barea, E. M., Abate, A., Alexander-Webber, J. a., Huang, J.,
Nicholas, R. J. (2014). Low-temperature processed electron collection layers of
graphene/TiO 2 nanocomposites in thin film perovskite solar cells. Nano Letters, 14(2),
724730. http://doi.org/10.1021/nl403997a
9. Wu, L., Chu, H. S., Koh, W. S., & Li, E. P. (2010). Highly sensitive graphene biosensors
based on surface plasmon resonance. Opt. Express, 18(14), 1439514400.
http://doi.org/10.1364/OE.18.014395
10. Ye, R., Xiang, C., Lin, J., Peng, Z., Huang, K., Yan, Z., Tour, J. M. (2013). Coal as an
abundant source of graphene quantum dots. Nature Communications, 4, 2943.
http://doi.org/10.1038/ncomms3943
11. You, P., Liu, Z., Tai, Q., Liu, S., & Yan, F. (2015). Efficient Semitransparent Perovskite
Solar Cells with Graphene Electrodes. Advanced Materials, n/an/a.
http://doi.org/10.1002/adma.201501145
12. Zang, J., Ryu, S., Pugno, N., Wang, Q., Tu, Q., Buehler, M. J., & Zhao, X. (2013).
Multifunctionality and control of the crumpling and unfolding of large-area graphene.
Nature Materials, 12(4), 3215. http://doi.org/10.1038/nmat3542
13. Zhang, J., Sun, Y., Xu, B., Zhang, H., Gao, Y., Zhang, H., & Song, D. (2013). A novel
surface plasmon resonance biosensor based on graphene oxide decorated with gold
nanorod-antibody conjugates for determination of transferrin. Biosensors &
Bioelectronics, 45, 2306. http://doi.org/10.1016/j.bios.2013.02.008