The use of electric fields for signalling and control in liquids is widespread, spanning bioelectric activity in cells to electrical manipulation of microstructures in lab-on-a-chip devices. However, an appropriate tool to resolve the spatio-temporal distribution of electric fields over a large dynamic range has yet to be developed. Here we present a label-free method to image local electric fields in real time and under ambient conditions. Our technique combines the unique gate-variable optical transitions of graphene with a critically coupled planar waveguide platform that enables highly sensitive detection of local electric fields with a voltage sensitivity of a few microvolts, a spatial resolution of tens of micrometres and a frequency response over tens of kilohertz. Our imaging platform enables parallel detection of electric fields over a large field of view and can be tailored to broad applications spanning lab-on-a-chip device engineering to analysis of bioelectric phenomena.
@article{arxiv.1911.09055,
title = {Imaging electric field dynamics with graphene optoelectronics},
author = {Jason Horng and Halleh B. Balch and Allister F. McGuire and Hsin-Zon Tsai and Patrick R. Forrester and Michael F. Crommie and Bianxiao Cui and Feng Wang},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1911.09055},
year = {2019}
}
Comments
9 pages, 5 figures, supplement can be found at 10.1038/ncomms13704