Infrared nano-imaging of plasmonic hotspots on graphene nano-bubbles

One of the major goals of plasmonics is to achieve strong enhancement of electromagnetic energy by forming plasmonic hot spots for various applications including bio-sensing, single molecule fingerprinting, surface enhanced spectroscopy, and etc. Here, we demonstrate by infrared nano-imaging that nano-bubbles formed on graphene/hexagonal boron nitride heterostructures are ideal for trapping electromagnetic energy thus forming ultra-confined plasmonic hot spots. The distributions of these hot spots are sensitively dependent on the size and shape of these nano-bubbles as well as the ingredients inside. Further analysis indicates that the observed plasmonic hotspots are formed due to a significant enhancement of the plasmon wavelength and intensity above graphene nano-bubbles filled with air or other low-k dielectric materials. Our work presents a novel scheme for plasmonic hot spots formation and sheds light on future applications of graphene nano-bubbles for plasmon-enhanced single molecule characterization.