Plasmonic devices and spatial dispersion effects in graphene technology for terahertz applications

© 2015 IEEE. This paper is dedicated to the memory of Professor Julien Perruisseau-Carrier, reviewing some of his pioneering contributions to the field of graphene plasmonics, with focus on those elaborated in collaboration with the authors. We first summarize the design and analysis of planar reconfigurable THz filters hosted in graphene nanoribbons, which are efficiently designed taking advantage of the quasi-static nature of graphene surface plasmon polaritons (SPPs) in nanostructures. Spatial dispersion in graphene sheets is then reviewed. This effect is closely related to the quantum capacitance of graphene and can be modelled with an equivalent circuit able to accurately predict the complex propagation constant of the supported SPPs. The practical implications of this phenomenon regarding THz graphene-based plasmonic devices are briefly discussed.