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Polar van der Waals (vdW) crystals, composed of atomic layers held together by vdW forces, can host phonon polaritons—quasiparticles arising from the interaction between photons in free-space light and lattice vibrations in polar materials. These crystals offer advantages such as easy fabrication, low Ohmic loss, and optical confinement. Recently, hexagonal boron nitride (hBN), known for having hyperbolicity in the mid-infrared range, has been used to explore multiple modes with high optical confinement. This opens possibilities for practical polaritonic nanodevices with subdiffractional resolution. However, polariton waves still face exposure to the surrounding environment, leading to significant energy losses. In this work, we propose a simple approach to inducing a hyperbolic phonon polariton (HPhP) waveguide in hBN by incorporating a low dielectric medium, ZrS2. The low dielectric medium serves a dual purpose—it acts as a pathway for polariton propagation, while inducing high optical confinement. We establish the criteria for the HPhP waveguide in vdW heterostructures with various thicknesses of ZrS2 through scattering-type scanning near-field optical microscopy (s-SNOM) and by conducting numerical electromagnetic simulations. Our work presents a feasible and straightforward method for developing practical nanophotonic devices with low optical loss and high confinement, with potential applications such as energy transfer, nano-optical integrated circuits, light trapping, etc.
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Deeply subwavelength integrated excitonic van der Waals nanophotonics
The wave nature of light sets a fundamental diffraction limit that challenges confinement and control of light in nanoscale structures with dimensions significantly smaller than the wavelength. Here, we study light–matter interaction in van der Waals MoS2nanophotonic devices. We show that light can be coupled and guided in structures with dimensions as small as ≃λ/16 (∼60nm at 1000 nm excitation wavelength), while offering unprecedented optical field confinement. This deep subwavelength optical field confinement is achieved by exploiting strong lightwave dispersion in MoS2. We further study the performance of a range of nanophotonic integrated devices via far- and near-field measurements. Our near-field measurements reveal detailed imaging of excitation, evolution, and guidance of fields in nanostructured MoS2, whereas our far-field study examines light excitation and coupling to highly confined integrated photonics. Nanophotonics at a fraction of a wavelength demonstrated here could dramatically reduce the size of integrated photonic devices and opto-electronic circuits with potential applications in optical information science and engineering.
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- PAR ID:
- 10473597
- Publisher / Repository:
- Optica
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- Optica
- Volume:
- 10
- Issue:
- 10
- ISSN:
- 2334-2536
- Page Range / eLocation ID:
- 1345
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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- Free Publicly Accessible Full Text
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Accepted Manuscript
- Journal Article:
- https://doi.org/10.1364/OPTICA.499059
