Localized Heating with Graphene Plasmon Networks

Abstract

The aim of this thesis is to introduce and explore the concept of adaptive localizedheating and hot-spot generation with graphene plasmon networks. First, we review the topic of localized heating methods in the literature. Next, we discuss the drawbacks and limitations of current methods for local heating and propose our approach based on tunable resonant absorption in graphene plasmon networks. To begin with, we introduce the basic material properties (transport, optical, and electronic) of graphene, a two-dimensional arrangement of carbon atoms, and discuss the principles of graphene plasmon-polariton electromagnetic modes. Next, we present the results of absorption prole for the nano-structured graphene. Concretely, the graphene plasmons are modeled via both the rigorous coupled-wave analysis (RCWA) and nite element analysis. After we theoretically validate and conrm the generation of the hotspot based on absorption prole, we move on to the spatial temperature prole by means of the nite element analysis. In addition to the single cell heat transport simulation, we also discuss the heat transport results for the multi-cell model and extended multi-cell model. As a result, we theoretically conrm that localized hot-spots can be controllablly and adaptively formed in the extended multi-cell network. We further characterize the spatial temperature proles and discuss the hot-spot temperature gradients. Lastly, we present the potential fabrication process of this device and review candidate heating control methods based on programmable electrostatic gating.