In-plane hyperbolic polariton tuners in terahertz and long-wave infrared regimes

Abstract One of the main bottlenecks in the development of terahertz (THz) and long-wave infrared (LWIR) technologies is the limited intrinsic response of traditional materials. Hyperbolic phonon polaritons (HPhPs) of van der Waals semiconductors couple strongly with THz and LWIR radiation. However,...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Wuchao Huang, Thomas G. Folland, Fengsheng Sun, Zebo Zheng, Ningsheng Xu, Qiaoxia Xing, Jingyao Jiang, Huanjun Chen, Joshua D. Caldwell, Hugen Yan, Shaozhi Deng
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Nature Portfolio 2023-05-01
Series:Nature Communications
Online Access:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-023-38214-0
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Summary:Abstract One of the main bottlenecks in the development of terahertz (THz) and long-wave infrared (LWIR) technologies is the limited intrinsic response of traditional materials. Hyperbolic phonon polaritons (HPhPs) of van der Waals semiconductors couple strongly with THz and LWIR radiation. However, the mismatch of photon − polariton momentum makes far-field excitation of HPhPs challenging. Here, we propose an In-Plane Hyperbolic Polariton Tuner that is based on patterning van der Waals semiconductors, here α-MoO3, into ribbon arrays. We demonstrate that such tuners respond directly to far-field excitation and give rise to LWIR and THz resonances with high quality factors up to 300, which are strongly dependent on in-plane hyperbolic polariton of the patterned α-MoO3. We further show that with this tuner, intensity regulation of reflected and transmitted electromagnetic waves, as well as their wavelength and polarization selection can be achieved. Our results can help the development of THz and LWIR miniaturized devices.
ISSN:2041-1723