  We propose a scheme for coupling laser light into graphene plasmons with the
help of electrically generated surface acoustic waves. The surface acoustic
wave forms a diffraction grating which allows to excite the long lived
phonon-like branch of the hybridized graphene plasmon-phonon dispersion with
infrared laser light. Our approach avoids patterning the graphene sheet, does
not rely on complicated optical near-field techniques, and allows to
electrically switch the coupling between far field radiation and propagating
graphene plasmons.
