Unveiling the mechanism of phonon-polariton damping in α-MoO3

Phonon polaritons (PhPs), light coupled to lattice vibrations, in the highly anisotropic polar layered material molybdenum trioxide (α-MoO3) are currently the focus of intense research efforts due to their extreme subwavelength field confinement, directional propagation, and unprecedented low losses...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores: Taboada-Gutiérrez, Javier, Zhou, Yixi, Tresguerres-Mata, Ana I. F., Lanza, Christian, Martínez-Suárez, Abel, Álvarez-Pérez, Gonzalo, Duan, Jiahua, Martín, José Ignacio, Vélez, María, Prieto, Iván, Bercher, Adrien, Teyssier, Jérémie, Errea, Ion, Nikitin, Alexey Y., Martín-Sánchez, Javier, Kuzmenko, Alexey B., Alonso-González, Pablo
Tipo de recurso: artículo
Estado:Versión publicada
Fecha de publicación:2024
País:España
Institución:Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC)
Repositorio:DIGITAL.CSIC. Repositorio Institucional del CSIC
OAI Identifier:oai:digital.csic.es:10261/373972
Acceso en línea:http://hdl.handle.net/10261/373972
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palabra clave:Phonon polaritons
Hyperbolic materials
Van der Waals materials
Low-temperature s-SNOM
Descripción
Sumario:Phonon polaritons (PhPs), light coupled to lattice vibrations, in the highly anisotropic polar layered material molybdenum trioxide (α-MoO3) are currently the focus of intense research efforts due to their extreme subwavelength field confinement, directional propagation, and unprecedented low losses. Nevertheless, prior research has primarily concentrated on exploiting the squeezing and steering capabilities of α-MoO3 PhPs, without inquiring much into the dominant microscopic mechanism that determines their long lifetimes, which is key for their implementation in nanophotonic applications. This study delves into the fundamental processes that govern PhP damping in α-MoO3 by combining ab initio calculations with scattering-type scanning near-field optical microscopy (s-SNOM) and Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy measurements across a broad temperature range (8–300 K). The remarkable agreement between our theoretical predictions and experimental observations allows us to identify third-order anharmonic phonon–phonon scattering as the main damping mechanism of α-MoO3 PhPs. These findings shed light on the fundamental limits of low-loss PhPs, which is a crucial factor for assessing their implementation into nanophotonic devices.

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