Soft-boundary graphene nanoribbon formed by a graphene sheet above a perturbed ground plane: conductivity profile and SPP modal current distribution

An infinite sheet of graphene lying above a perturbed ground plane is studied. The perturbation is a two dimensional ridge, and a bias voltage is applied between the graphene and the ground plane, resulting in a graphene nanoribbonlike structure with a soft-boundary (SB) The spatial distribution of the graphene conductivity forming the soft-boundary is studied as a function of the ridge parameters and the bias voltage. The current distribution of the fundamental TM surface plasmon polariton (SPP) is considered. The effect of the ridge parameters and shape of the soft boundary on the current distributions are investigated, and the conditions are studied under which the mode remains confined to the vicinity of the ridge region.