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Ultra-confined surface phonon polaritons in molecular layers of van der Waals dielectrics

Ultra-confined surface phonon polaritons in molecular layers of van der Waals dielectrics
Ultra-confined surface phonon polaritons in molecular layers of van der Waals dielectrics
Improvements in device density in photonic circuits can only be achieved with interconnects exploiting highly confined states of light. Recently this has brought interest to highly confined plasmon and phonon polaritons. While plasmonic structures have been extensively studied, the ultimate limits of phonon polariton squeezing, in particular enabling the confinement (the ratio between the excitation and polariton wavelengths) exceeding 102, is yet to be explored. Here, exploiting unique structure of 2D materials, we report for the first time that atomically thin van der Waals dielectrics (e.g., transition-metal dichalcogenides) on silicon carbide substrate demonstrate experimentally record-breaking propagating phonon polaritons confinement resulting in 190-times squeezed surface waves. The strongly dispersive confinement can be potentially tuned to greater than 103 near the phonon resonance of the substrate, and it scales with number of van der Waals layers. We argue that our findings are a substantial step towards infrared ultra-compact phonon polaritonic circuits and resonators, and would stimulate further investigations on nanophotonics in non-plasmonic atomically thin interface platforms.
1-6
Dubrovkin, Alexander
fa0e6582-e26b-4881-a89e-fe091fac5753
Qiang, Bo
586d2613-c900-45cc-b2cb-572bc3c94760
Krishnamoorthy, Harish N.S.
87456c53-9077-4ccf-80b9-44470ad845b9
Zheludev, Nikolai
32fb6af7-97e4-4d11-bca6-805745e40cc6
Wang, Qi Jie
7c1704d2-9379-4e7e-b7d2-bf02f0f29ee5
Dubrovkin, Alexander
fa0e6582-e26b-4881-a89e-fe091fac5753
Qiang, Bo
586d2613-c900-45cc-b2cb-572bc3c94760
Krishnamoorthy, Harish N.S.
87456c53-9077-4ccf-80b9-44470ad845b9
Zheludev, Nikolai
32fb6af7-97e4-4d11-bca6-805745e40cc6
Wang, Qi Jie
7c1704d2-9379-4e7e-b7d2-bf02f0f29ee5

Dubrovkin, Alexander, Qiang, Bo, Krishnamoorthy, Harish N.S., Zheludev, Nikolai and Wang, Qi Jie (2018) Ultra-confined surface phonon polaritons in molecular layers of van der Waals dielectrics. Nature Communications, 9, 1-6, [1762]. (doi:10.1038/s41467-018-04168-x).

Record type: Article

Abstract

Improvements in device density in photonic circuits can only be achieved with interconnects exploiting highly confined states of light. Recently this has brought interest to highly confined plasmon and phonon polaritons. While plasmonic structures have been extensively studied, the ultimate limits of phonon polariton squeezing, in particular enabling the confinement (the ratio between the excitation and polariton wavelengths) exceeding 102, is yet to be explored. Here, exploiting unique structure of 2D materials, we report for the first time that atomically thin van der Waals dielectrics (e.g., transition-metal dichalcogenides) on silicon carbide substrate demonstrate experimentally record-breaking propagating phonon polaritons confinement resulting in 190-times squeezed surface waves. The strongly dispersive confinement can be potentially tuned to greater than 103 near the phonon resonance of the substrate, and it scales with number of van der Waals layers. We argue that our findings are a substantial step towards infrared ultra-compact phonon polaritonic circuits and resonators, and would stimulate further investigations on nanophotonics in non-plasmonic atomically thin interface platforms.

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Accepted/In Press date: 11 April 2018
e-pub ahead of print date: 2 May 2018
Published date: 2018

Identifiers

Local EPrints ID: 420468
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/420468
PURE UUID: ae0dfd4b-469c-4943-b400-7c93cf9ff691
ORCID for Nikolai Zheludev: ORCID iD orcid.org/0000-0002-1013-6636

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Date deposited: 08 May 2018 16:30
Last modified: 16 Mar 2024 06:29

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Contributors

Author: Alexander Dubrovkin
Author: Bo Qiang
Author: Harish N.S. Krishnamoorthy
Author: Nikolai Zheludev ORCID iD
Author: Qi Jie Wang

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