Visible-frequency hyperbolic plasmon polaritons in a natural van der Waals crystal

Abstract Controlling light at subwavelength scales is crucial in nanophotonics. Hyperbolic polaritons, supporting arbitrarily large wavevectors, enable extreme light confinement beyond the diffraction limit. Traditional hyperbolic metamaterials suffer from high losses due to metallic components, whi...

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Main Authors: Giacomo Venturi, Andrea Mancini, Nicola Melchioni, Stefano Chiodini, Antonio Ambrosio
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Nature Portfolio 2024-11-01
Series:Nature Communications
Online Access:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-024-53988-7
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author Giacomo Venturi
Andrea Mancini
Nicola Melchioni
Stefano Chiodini
Antonio Ambrosio
author_facet Giacomo Venturi
Andrea Mancini
Nicola Melchioni
Stefano Chiodini
Antonio Ambrosio
author_sort Giacomo Venturi
collection DOAJ
description Abstract Controlling light at subwavelength scales is crucial in nanophotonics. Hyperbolic polaritons, supporting arbitrarily large wavevectors, enable extreme light confinement beyond the diffraction limit. Traditional hyperbolic metamaterials suffer from high losses due to metallic components, while natural low-loss hyperbolic phonon polaritons are limited to the mid-infrared range. Some hyperbolic materials at visible frequencies have been studied, but they are either very lossy or only feature out-of-plane hyperbolicity. Here, we demonstrate the presence of low-loss, in-plane hyperbolic plasmon polaritons in the visible and near-infrared in thin-films of MoOCl2, a natural van der Waals crystal. The polariton dispersion is predicted based on the framework of light propagation in biaxial media and experimentally confirmed by real space nano imaging on exfoliated flakes. MoOCl2 constitutes an ideal material platform for visible range applications leveraging the unboundedness of hyperbolic modes, such as hyperlensing, Purcell factor enhancement, and super-resolution imaging, without the drawbacks of metamaterials.
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institution Kabale University
issn 2041-1723
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spelling doaj-art-6cf7cd46fab24281aba750b8d58b3b6e2024-11-10T12:32:59ZengNature PortfolioNature Communications2041-17232024-11-011511910.1038/s41467-024-53988-7Visible-frequency hyperbolic plasmon polaritons in a natural van der Waals crystalGiacomo Venturi0Andrea Mancini1Nicola Melchioni2Stefano Chiodini3Antonio Ambrosio4Centre for Nano Science and Technology, Fondazione Istituto Italiano di TecnologiaCentre for Nano Science and Technology, Fondazione Istituto Italiano di TecnologiaCentre for Nano Science and Technology, Fondazione Istituto Italiano di TecnologiaCentre for Nano Science and Technology, Fondazione Istituto Italiano di TecnologiaCentre for Nano Science and Technology, Fondazione Istituto Italiano di TecnologiaAbstract Controlling light at subwavelength scales is crucial in nanophotonics. Hyperbolic polaritons, supporting arbitrarily large wavevectors, enable extreme light confinement beyond the diffraction limit. Traditional hyperbolic metamaterials suffer from high losses due to metallic components, while natural low-loss hyperbolic phonon polaritons are limited to the mid-infrared range. Some hyperbolic materials at visible frequencies have been studied, but they are either very lossy or only feature out-of-plane hyperbolicity. Here, we demonstrate the presence of low-loss, in-plane hyperbolic plasmon polaritons in the visible and near-infrared in thin-films of MoOCl2, a natural van der Waals crystal. The polariton dispersion is predicted based on the framework of light propagation in biaxial media and experimentally confirmed by real space nano imaging on exfoliated flakes. MoOCl2 constitutes an ideal material platform for visible range applications leveraging the unboundedness of hyperbolic modes, such as hyperlensing, Purcell factor enhancement, and super-resolution imaging, without the drawbacks of metamaterials.https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-024-53988-7
spellingShingle Giacomo Venturi
Andrea Mancini
Nicola Melchioni
Stefano Chiodini
Antonio Ambrosio
Visible-frequency hyperbolic plasmon polaritons in a natural van der Waals crystal
Nature Communications
title Visible-frequency hyperbolic plasmon polaritons in a natural van der Waals crystal
title_full Visible-frequency hyperbolic plasmon polaritons in a natural van der Waals crystal
title_fullStr Visible-frequency hyperbolic plasmon polaritons in a natural van der Waals crystal
title_full_unstemmed Visible-frequency hyperbolic plasmon polaritons in a natural van der Waals crystal
title_short Visible-frequency hyperbolic plasmon polaritons in a natural van der Waals crystal
title_sort visible frequency hyperbolic plasmon polaritons in a natural van der waals crystal
url https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-024-53988-7
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AT nicolamelchioni visiblefrequencyhyperbolicplasmonpolaritonsinanaturalvanderwaalscrystal
AT stefanochiodini visiblefrequencyhyperbolicplasmonpolaritonsinanaturalvanderwaalscrystal
AT antonioambrosio visiblefrequencyhyperbolicplasmonpolaritonsinanaturalvanderwaalscrystal