Enhanced and Selective Photodetection Using Graphene-Stabilized Hybrid Plasmonic Silver Nanoparticles

We report the fabrication and characteristics of a novel graphene-Ag⁰ hybrid plasmonic nanostructure-based photodetector exhibiting moderately high responsivity (～28 mA/W) and spectral selectivity (～510 nm) in the visible wavelength. The formation of highly stable Ag⁰ nanoparticles with an average size of 40 nm is observed within the graphene layers, resulting in n-type doping of hybrid material. The absorption peak of graphene-Ag⁰ hybrid is redshifted to the visible wavelength (～510 nm) from the plasmonic Ag peak (～380 nm) in agreement with the optical simulation results for embedded metal nanoparticles. The study demonstrates the synergistic effect of the graphene-metal nanocomposite, which appears attractive for applications in graphene-based photonic devices.