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Recently, broken symmetry within crystals has been igniting tremendous research interest since it can be utilized to effectively manipulate the propagation of photons. In particular, low-symmetry Bravais crystals can support hyperbolic shear polaritons (HShPs), holding great promise for technological upgrading on the emerging research area of spinoptics. Herein, an Otto-type multilayer structure consisting of KRS5 prism, sensing medium, and monoclinic β-Ga2O3 crystal is designed to ameliorate the photonic spin Hall effect (PSHE). The surface of β-Ga2O3 is the monoclinic (010) plane (x-y plane). We show that giant spin Hall shifts with three (or two) orders of magnitude of the incident wavelength are obtained in the in-plane (or transverse) directions. The azimuthal dispersions of photonic spin Hall shifts present non‐mirror‐symmetric patterns at tuning the rotation angle of β-Ga2O3 around the z axis in plane. All of these exotic optical properties are closely correlated with the broken crystal lattice symmetry and the incurred excitation of HShPs in monoclinic β-Ga2O3 crystal. By virtue of the remarkably enhanced PSHE, our proposed Otto-type multilayer structure shows a superior biosensing performance in which the maximum sensitivity is two orders of magnitude larger than previously reported PSHE biosensors based on two-dimensional materials. In addition, the optimized physical and structural parameters including the incident angle, excitation wavelength, azimuth angle and doping concentration of β-Ga2O3, thickness and refractive index of sensing medium are also investigated and given. This work unequivocally confirms the strong influence of crystal symmetry on the PSHE, shedding important insights into understanding the rich modulation of spin-orbit interaction of light via shear polaritons and therefore facilitating potential applications in photoelectronic devices.
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Hyperbolic shear polaritons in low-symmetry crystals
Abstract The lattice symmetry of a crystal is one of the most important factors in determining its physical properties. Particularly, low-symmetry crystals offer powerful opportunities to control light propagation, polarization and phase 1–4 . Materials featuring extreme optical anisotropy can support a hyperbolic response, enabling coupled light–matter interactions, also known as polaritons, with highly directional propagation and compression of light to deeply sub-wavelength scales 5 . Here we show that monoclinic crystals can support hyperbolic shear polaritons, a new polariton class arising in the mid-infrared to far-infrared due to shear phenomena in the dielectric response. This feature emerges in materials in which the dielectric tensor cannot be diagonalized, that is, in low-symmetry monoclinic and triclinic crystals in which several oscillators with non-orthogonal relative orientations contribute to the optical response 6,7 . Hyperbolic shear polaritons complement previous observations of hyperbolic phonon polaritons in orthorhombic 1,3,4 and hexagonal 8,9 crystal systems, unveiling new features, such as the continuous evolution of their propagation direction with frequency, tilted wavefronts and asymmetric responses. The interplay between diagonal loss and off-diagonal shear phenomena in the dielectric response of these materials has implications for new forms of non-Hermitian and topological photonic states. We anticipate that our results will motivate new directions for polariton physics in low-symmetry materials, which include geological minerals 10 , many common oxides 11 and organic crystals 12 , greatly expanding the material base and extending design opportunities for compact photonic devices.
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- PAR ID:
- 10331461
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- Nature
- Volume:
- 602
- Issue:
- 7898
- ISSN:
- 0028-0836
- Page Range / eLocation ID:
- 595 to 600
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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- Free Publicly Accessible Full Text
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Accepted Manuscript1.0
- Journal Article:
- https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-021-04328-y
