Optical properties of graphene superlattices

Abstract

In this work, the optical responses of graphene superlattices, i.e. graphene subjected to a periodic scalar potential, are theoretically reported. The optical properties were studied by investigating the optical conductivity, which was calculated using the Kubo formalism. It was found that the optical conductivity becomes dependent on the photon polarization and is suppressed in the photon energy range of (0, Ub), where Ub is the potential barrier height. In the higher photon energy range, i.e. Ω > Ub, the optical conductivity is, however, almost identical to that of pristine graphene. Such behaviors of the optical conductivity are explained microscopically through the analysis of the elements of optical matrices and effectively through a simple model, which is based on the Pauli blocking mechanism.