Mid-infrared analogue polaritonic reversed Cherenkov radiation in natural anisotropic crystals
Abstract Cherenkov radiation (CR) excited by fast charges can serve as on-chip light sources with a nanoscale footprint and broad frequency range. The reversed CR, which usually occurs in media with the negative refractive index or negative group-velocity dispersion, is highly desired because it can...
| Main Authors: | , , , , , , , , , , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Nature Portfolio
2023-05-01
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| Series: | Nature Communications |
| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-023-37923-w |
| _version_ | 1827952640831520768 |
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| author | Xiangdong Guo Chenchen Wu Shu Zhang Debo Hu Shunping Zhang Qiao Jiang Xiaokang Dai Yu Duan Xiaoxia Yang Zhipei Sun Shuang Zhang Hongxing Xu Qing Dai |
| author_facet | Xiangdong Guo Chenchen Wu Shu Zhang Debo Hu Shunping Zhang Qiao Jiang Xiaokang Dai Yu Duan Xiaoxia Yang Zhipei Sun Shuang Zhang Hongxing Xu Qing Dai |
| author_sort | Xiangdong Guo |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Abstract Cherenkov radiation (CR) excited by fast charges can serve as on-chip light sources with a nanoscale footprint and broad frequency range. The reversed CR, which usually occurs in media with the negative refractive index or negative group-velocity dispersion, is highly desired because it can effectively separate the radiated light from fast charges thanks to the obtuse radiation angle. However, reversed CR at the mid-infrared remains challenging due to the significant loss of conventional artificial structures. Here we observe mid-infrared analogue polaritonic reversed CR in a natural van der Waals (vdW) material (i.e., α-MoO3), whose hyperbolic phonon polaritons exhibit negative group velocity. Further, the real-space image results of analogue polaritonic reversed CR indicate that the radiation distributions and angles are closely related to the in-plane isofrequency contours of α-MoO3, which can be further tuned in the heterostructures based on α-MoO3. This work demonstrates that natural vdW heterostructures can be used as a promising platform of reversed CR to design on-chip mid-infrared nano-light sources. |
| first_indexed | 2024-04-09T14:00:49Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-21c1c228611e41fc94900c7d5540d88c |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2041-1723 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-04-09T14:00:49Z |
| publishDate | 2023-05-01 |
| publisher | Nature Portfolio |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Nature Communications |
| spelling | doaj.art-21c1c228611e41fc94900c7d5540d88c2023-05-07T11:18:19ZengNature PortfolioNature Communications2041-17232023-05-011411710.1038/s41467-023-37923-wMid-infrared analogue polaritonic reversed Cherenkov radiation in natural anisotropic crystalsXiangdong Guo0Chenchen Wu1Shu Zhang2Debo Hu3Shunping Zhang4Qiao Jiang5Xiaokang Dai6Yu Duan7Xiaoxia Yang8Zhipei Sun9Shuang Zhang10Hongxing Xu11Qing Dai12CAS Key Laboratory of Nanophotonic Materials and Devices, CAS Key Laboratory of Standardization and Measurement for Nanotechnology, CAS Center for Excellence in Nanoscience, National Center for Nanoscience and TechnologyCAS Key Laboratory of Nanophotonic Materials and Devices, CAS Key Laboratory of Standardization and Measurement for Nanotechnology, CAS Center for Excellence in Nanoscience, National Center for Nanoscience and TechnologyCAS Key Laboratory of Nanophotonic Materials and Devices, CAS Key Laboratory of Standardization and Measurement for Nanotechnology, CAS Center for Excellence in Nanoscience, National Center for Nanoscience and TechnologyCAS Key Laboratory of Nanophotonic Materials and Devices, CAS Key Laboratory of Standardization and Measurement for Nanotechnology, CAS Center for Excellence in Nanoscience, National Center for Nanoscience and TechnologySchool of Physics and Technology, Center for Nanoscience and Nanotechnology, and Key Laboratory of Artificial Micro- and Nano-structures of Ministry of Education, Wuhan UniversityCollege of Physics, Chongqing UniversityCAS Key Laboratory of Nanophotonic Materials and Devices, CAS Key Laboratory of Standardization and Measurement for Nanotechnology, CAS Center for Excellence in Nanoscience, National Center for Nanoscience and TechnologyCAS Key Laboratory of Nanophotonic Materials and Devices, CAS Key Laboratory of Standardization and Measurement for Nanotechnology, CAS Center for Excellence in Nanoscience, National Center for Nanoscience and TechnologyCAS Key Laboratory of Nanophotonic Materials and Devices, CAS Key Laboratory of Standardization and Measurement for Nanotechnology, CAS Center for Excellence in Nanoscience, National Center for Nanoscience and TechnologyDepartment of Electronics and Nanoengineering and QTF Centre of Excellence, Department of Applied Physics, Aalto UniversityDepartment of Physics, University of Hong KongSchool of Physics and Technology, Center for Nanoscience and Nanotechnology, and Key Laboratory of Artificial Micro- and Nano-structures of Ministry of Education, Wuhan UniversityCAS Key Laboratory of Nanophotonic Materials and Devices, CAS Key Laboratory of Standardization and Measurement for Nanotechnology, CAS Center for Excellence in Nanoscience, National Center for Nanoscience and TechnologyAbstract Cherenkov radiation (CR) excited by fast charges can serve as on-chip light sources with a nanoscale footprint and broad frequency range. The reversed CR, which usually occurs in media with the negative refractive index or negative group-velocity dispersion, is highly desired because it can effectively separate the radiated light from fast charges thanks to the obtuse radiation angle. However, reversed CR at the mid-infrared remains challenging due to the significant loss of conventional artificial structures. Here we observe mid-infrared analogue polaritonic reversed CR in a natural van der Waals (vdW) material (i.e., α-MoO3), whose hyperbolic phonon polaritons exhibit negative group velocity. Further, the real-space image results of analogue polaritonic reversed CR indicate that the radiation distributions and angles are closely related to the in-plane isofrequency contours of α-MoO3, which can be further tuned in the heterostructures based on α-MoO3. This work demonstrates that natural vdW heterostructures can be used as a promising platform of reversed CR to design on-chip mid-infrared nano-light sources.https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-023-37923-w |
| spellingShingle | Xiangdong Guo Chenchen Wu Shu Zhang Debo Hu Shunping Zhang Qiao Jiang Xiaokang Dai Yu Duan Xiaoxia Yang Zhipei Sun Shuang Zhang Hongxing Xu Qing Dai Mid-infrared analogue polaritonic reversed Cherenkov radiation in natural anisotropic crystals Nature Communications |
| title | Mid-infrared analogue polaritonic reversed Cherenkov radiation in natural anisotropic crystals |
| title_full | Mid-infrared analogue polaritonic reversed Cherenkov radiation in natural anisotropic crystals |
| title_fullStr | Mid-infrared analogue polaritonic reversed Cherenkov radiation in natural anisotropic crystals |
| title_full_unstemmed | Mid-infrared analogue polaritonic reversed Cherenkov radiation in natural anisotropic crystals |
| title_short | Mid-infrared analogue polaritonic reversed Cherenkov radiation in natural anisotropic crystals |
| title_sort | mid infrared analogue polaritonic reversed cherenkov radiation in natural anisotropic crystals |
| url | https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-023-37923-w |
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