Polariton design and modulation via van der Waals/doped semiconductor heterostructures

Mingze He; Joseph R Matson; Mingyu Yu; Angela Cleri; Sai S Sunku; Eli Janzen; Stefan Mastel; Thomas G Folland; James H Edgar; D. N Basov; Jon-Paul Maria; Stephanie Law; Joshua D Caldwell

doi:10.1038/s41467-023-43414-9

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Polariton design and modulation via van der Waals/doped semiconductor heterostructures

Journal article

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Polariton design and modulation via van der Waals/doped semiconductor heterostructures

Mingze He, Joseph R Matson, Mingyu Yu, Angela Cleri, Sai S Sunku, Eli Janzen, Stefan Mastel, Thomas G Folland, James H Edgar, D. N Basov, …

Nature communications, Vol.14(1), 7965

12/02/2023

DOI: 10.1038/s41467-023-43414-9

PMCID: PMC10693602

PMID: 38042825

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Abstract

Hyperbolic phonon polaritons (HPhPs) can be supported in materials where the real parts of their permittivities along different directions are opposite in sign. HPhPs offer confinements of long-wavelength light to deeply subdiffractional scales, while the evanescent field allows for interactions with substrates, enabling the tuning of HPhPs by altering the underlying materials. Yet, conventionally used noble metal and dielectric substrates restrict the tunability of this approach. To overcome this challenge, here we show that doped semiconductor substrates, e.g., InAs and CdO, enable a significant tuning effect and dynamic modulations. We elucidated HPhP tuning with the InAs plasma frequency in the near-field, with a maximum difference of 8.3 times. Moreover, the system can be dynamically modulated by photo-injecting carriers into the InAs substrate, leading to a wavevector change of ~20%. Overall, the demonstrated hBN/doped semiconductor platform offers significant improvements towards manipulating HPhPs, and potential for engineered and modulated polaritonic systems.The photonic applications of hyperbolic phonon polaritons (HPhPs) in anisotropic van der Waals materials are currently limited by their low tunability. Here, the authors report the static and ultrafast wavevector modulation of HPhPs in hexagonal boron nitride by tuning the plasma frequency of doped semiconductor substrates.

Boron

Boron nitride

Heterostructures

Indium arsenides

Modulation

Noble metals

Phonons

Plasma frequencies

Polaritons

Substrates

Tuning

Details

Title: Subtitle: Polariton design and modulation via van der Waals/doped semiconductor heterostructures
Creators: Mingze He - Vanderbilt University
Joseph R Matson - Vanderbilt University
Mingyu Yu - University of Delaware
Angela Cleri - Pennsylvania State University
Sai S Sunku - Columbia University
Eli Janzen - Kansas State University
Stefan Mastel - Attocube Systems (Germany)
Thomas G Folland - University of Iowa
James H Edgar - Kansas State University
D. N Basov - Columbia University
Jon-Paul Maria
Stephanie Law - Pennsylvania State University
Joshua D Caldwell - Vanderbilt University
Resource Type: Journal article
Publication Details: Nature communications, Vol.14(1), 7965
DOI: 10.1038/s41467-023-43414-9
PMID: 38042825
PMCID: PMC10693602
NLM abbreviation: Nat Commun
eISSN: 2041-1723
Publisher: Nature Publishing Group
Language: English
Date published: 12/02/2023
Academic Unit: Physics and Astronomy
Record Identifier: 9984520560302771

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