Local and nonlocal optically induced transparency effects in graphene-silicon hybrid nanophotonic integrated circuits.

Graphene is well-known as a two-dimensional sheet of carbon atoms arrayed in a honeycomb structure. It has some unique and fascinating properties, which are useful for realizing many optoelectronic devices and applications, including transistors, photodetectors, solar cells, and modulators. To enhance light-graphene interactions and take advantage of its properties, a promising approach is to combine a graphene sheet with optical waveguides, such as silicon nanophotonic wires considered in this paper. Here we report local and nonlocal optically induced transparency (OIT) effects in graphene-silicon hybrid nanophotonic integrated circuits. A low-power, continuous-wave laser is used as the pump light, and the power required for producing the OIT effect is as low as ∼0.1 mW. The corresponding power density is several orders lower than that needed for the previously reported saturated absorption effect in graphene, which implies a mechanism involving light absorption by the silicon and photocarrier transport through the silicon-graphene junction. The present OIT effect enables low power, all-optical, broadband control and sensing, modulation and switching locally and nonlocally.