  The unique optical and electronic properties of graphene allow one to realize
active optical devices. While several types of graphene-based photonic
modulators have already been demonstrated, the potential of combining the
versatility of graphene with subwavelength field confinement of
plasmonic/metallic structures is not fully realized. Here we report fabrication
and study of hybrid graphene-plasmonic modulators. We consider several types of
modulators and identify the most promising one for light modulation at telecom
and near-infrared. Our proof-of-concept results pave the way towards on-chip
realization of efficient graphene-based active plasmonic waveguide devices for
optical communications.
