Enhanced energy transfer via graphene-coated wire surface plasmons

This work analyzes the electromagnetic energy transfer rate between donor and acceptor quantum emitters close to a graphene-coated wire. We discuss the modification of the energy transfer rate when the emitters are interfaced via surface plasmon (SP) environments. All of the notable effects on the spatial dependence of the energy transfer are highlighted and discussed in terms of SP propagation characteristics. Our results show that a dramatically enhancement of the energy transfer occur when the graphene wire SPs are excited. Moreover, different dipole moment orientations influence differently this enhancement. As a consequence of the quasi-one-dimensional graphene wire SPs, we found that the normalized energy transfer rate reaches a maximum value at a donor-acceptor distance which is twice the value corresponding to its two-dimensional counterpart consisting of a single graphene sheet or a flat graphene waveguide. In particular, we provide a simplified model that reproduces the main features of the numerical results. (C) 2019 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.