Focusing of in-plane hyperbolic polaritons in van der Waals crystals with tailored infrared nanoantennas

[EN]Phonon polaritons (PhPs)-light coupled to lattice vibrations-with in-plane hyperbolic dispersion exhibit ray-like propagation with large wave vectors and enhanced density of optical states along certain directions on a surface. As such, they have raised a surge of interest, promising unprecedent...

Descripción completa

Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores: Martín Sánchez, J., Duan, J., Taboada Gutiérrez, J., Álvarez Pérez, G., Voronin, Kirill V., Prieto, Iván, Ma, Weiliang, Bao, Qiaoliang, Volkov, Valentyn S., Hillenbrand, Rainer, Nikitin, Alexey Y., Alonso González, Pablo
Tipo de recurso: artículo
Fecha de publicación:2021
País:España
Institución:Universidad del País Vasco
Repositorio:Addi. Archivo Digital para la Docencia y la Investigación
OAI Identifier:oai:addi.ehu.eus:10810/54155
Acceso en línea:http://hdl.handle.net/10810/54155
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palabra clave:phonon polaritons
Descripción
Sumario:[EN]Phonon polaritons (PhPs)-light coupled to lattice vibrations-with in-plane hyperbolic dispersion exhibit ray-like propagation with large wave vectors and enhanced density of optical states along certain directions on a surface. As such, they have raised a surge of interest, promising unprecedented manipulation of infrared light at the nanoscale in a planar circuitry. Here, we demonstrate focusing of in-plane hyperbolic PhPs propagating along thin slabs of alpha-MoO3. To that end, we developed metallic nanoantennas of convex geometries for both efficient launching and focusing of the polaritons. The foci obtained exhibit enhanced near-field confinement and absorption compared to foci produced by in-plane isotropic PhPs. Foci sizes as small as lambda(p)/4.5 = lambda(0)/50 were achieved (lambda(p) is the polariton wavelength and lambda(0) is the photon wavelength). Focusing of in-plane hyperbolic polaritons introduces a first and most basic building block developing planar polariton optics using in-plane anisotropic van der Waals materials.