Inductive tuning of fano-resonant metasurfaces using plasmonic response of graphene in the mid-infrared

Graphene is widely known for its anomalously strong broadband optical absorptivity of 2.3% that enables seeing its single-atom layer with the naked eye. However, in the mid-infrared part of the spectrum graphene represents a quintessential lossless zero-volume plasmonic material. We experimentally demonstrate that, when integrated with Fano-resonant plasmonic metasurfaces, single-layer graphene (SLG) can be used to tune their mid-infrared optical response. SLG's plasmonic response is shown to induce large blue shifts of the metasurface's resonance without reducing its spectral sharpness. This effect is explained by a generalized perturbation theory of SLG-metamaterial interaction that accounts for two unique properties of the SLG that set it apart from all other plasmonic materials: its anisotropic response and zero volume. These results pave the way to using gated SLG as a platform for dynamical spectral tuning of infrared metamaterials and metasurfaces.