We demonstrate that a broadband terahertz absorber with near-unity absorption can be realized using a net-shaped periodically sinusoidally-patterned graphene sheet, placed on a dielectric spacer supported on a metallic reflecting plate. Because of the gradient width modulation of the unit graphene sheet, continuous plasmon resonances can be excited, and therefore broadband terahertz absorption can be achieved. The results show that the absorber’s normalized bandwidth of 90% terahertz absorbance is over 65% under normal incidence for both TE and TM polarizations when the graphene chemical potential is set as 0.7 eV. And the broadband absorption is insensitive to the incident angles and the polarizations. The peak absorbance remains more than 70% over a wide range of the incident angles up to 60° for both polarizations. Furthermore, this absorber also has the advantage of flexible tunability via electrostatic doping of graphene sheet, which peak absorbance can be continuously tuned from 14% to 100% by controlling the chemical potential from 0 eV to 0.8 eV. The design scheme is scalable to develop various graphene-based tunable broadband absorbers at other terahertz, infrared, and visible frequencies, which may have promising applications in sensing, detecting, and optoelectronic devices.

Enhancement and manipulation of light absorption in graphene is a significant issue for applications of graphene-based optoelectronic devices. In order to achieve this purpose in the visible region, we demonstrate a design of a graphene optical absorber inspired by metal-dielectric-metal metamaterial for perfect absorption of electromagnetic waves. The optical absorbance ratios of single and three atomic layer graphene are enhanced up to 37.5% and 64.8%, respectively. The graphene absorber shows polarization-dependence and tolerates a wide range of incident angles. Furthermore, the peak position and bandwidth of graphene absorption spectra are tunable in a wide wavelength range through a specific structural configuration. These results imply that graphene in combination with plasmonic perfect absorbers have a promising potential for developing advanced nanophotonic devices.

We investigate the effect of water adsorption on the electrical properties of graphene oxide (GO) films using the direct current (DC) measurement and alternating current (AC) complex impedance spectroscopy. GO suspension synthesized by a modified Hummer's method is deposited on Au interdigitated electrodes. The strong electrical interaction of water molecules with GO films was observed through electrical characterizations. The DC measurement results show that the electrical properties of GO films are humidity- and applied voltage amplitude-dependent. The AC complex impedance spectroscopy method is used to analyze the mechanism of electrical interaction between water molecules and GO films in detail. At low humidity, GO films exhibit poor conductivity and can be seen as an insulator. However, at high humidity, the conductivity of GO films increases due to the enhancement of ion conduction. Our systematic research on this effect provides the fundamental supports for the development of graphene devices originating from solution-processed graphene oxide.

To understand the effects of Ag nanoparticles (NPs) on the performance of organic solar cells, we examined the properties of hybrid poly(3-hexylthiophene):[6,6]-phenyl-${\text{C}}_{61}$ -butyric-acid-methyl-ester:Ag NP solar cells using photoinduced charge extraction with a linearly increasing voltage. We find that the addition of Ag NPs into the active layer significantly enhances carrier mobility but decreases the total extracted carrier. Atomic force microscopy shows that the Ag NPs tend to phase segregate from the organic material at high concentrations. This suggests that the enhanced mobility results from carriers traversing Ag NP subnetworks, and that the reduced carrier density results from increased recombination from carriers trapped on the Ag particles.

We establish an adaptive batch-normalized neural network, aiming to implement smart and rapid inverse design for graphene-based metamaterials with on-demand optical responses.