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arXiv · 1805.00662

Optical Nanoimaging of Hyperbolic Surface Polaritons at the Edges of van der Waals Materials

P. Li·I. Dolado·F. J. Alfaro-Mozaz·A. Yu. Nikitin·F. Casanova·L. E. Hueso·S. Velez·R. Hillenbrand
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Abstract

yperbolic polaritons in van der Waals materials recently attract a lot of attention, owing to their strong electromagnetic field confinement, ultraslow group velocities and long lifetimes. Typically, volume confined hyperbolic polaritons (HPs) are studied. Here we show the first near-field optical images of hyperbolic surface polarities, HSPs, which are confined and guided at the edges of thin flakes of a vdW material. To that end, we applied scattering-type scanning near-field optical microscopy (s-SNOM) for launching and real-space nanoimaging of hyperbolic surface phonon polariton modes on a hexagonal boron nitride, h-BN, flake. Our imaging data reveal that the fundamental HSP mode exhibits stronger field confinement, smaller group velocities and nearly identical lifetimes, as compared to the fundamental HP mode of the same h-BN flake. Our experimental data, corroborated by theory, establish a solid basis for future studies and applications of HPs and HSPs in vdW materials.

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P. Li, I. Dolado, F. J. Alfaro-Mozaz, A. Yu. Nikitin, F. Casanova, L. E. Hueso, S. Velez, R. Hillenbrand. 2018-05-02. Optical Nanoimaging of Hyperbolic Surface Polaritons at the Edges of van der Waals Materials. https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.nanolett.6b03920

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