LE13613
- Black bodies are idealized objects capable of absorbing all
light impinging into them. In this paper, we engineer a black body made
of a single layer of carbon atoms (graphene). Our design achieves total
light absorption for selected colors, which can be easily tuned by means
of electrical connections placed nearby. This study has direct
application to improved photodetection, particularly in the difficult
range of infrared detection, for security sensing, nocturnal imaging,
etc. It has also direct application to infrared lighting, with great
potential for manufacturing sources with unprecedented levels of
brightness in this range of the optical spectrum, which has been
difficult to cover so far. Our design can also be used to collect
infrared light for improved photovoltaics, because this part of the
solar spectrum is generally lost due to the unavailability of good
infrared absorbers as ours. And there are several other directions of
application, including bionsensing, chemical detection, etc. And last
but not least, the new black bodies have fundamental interest as a
unique structure that is capable of absorbing light completely within
record-thin one-atom layer (the graphene) that is just several thousand
times thinner than the ligh wavelength.
