Ultrafast excitation of Bloch plasmon polaritons in hyperbolic metamaterials with an extreme ultra-violet transient grating

Tlek Tapani; Hannes Kempf; Matteo Pancaldi; Laura Foglia; Emanuele Pedersoli; Roberta Totani; Adriana Valerio; Riccardo Mincigrucci; Ivaylo Nikolov; Miltcho B. Danailov; Aitor De Andrés; Roman Krahne; Paolo Vavassori; Filippo Bencivenga; Flavio Capotondi; Denis Garoli; Nicolò Maccaferri

arXiv · 2605.20513

Ultrafast excitation of Bloch plasmon polaritons in hyperbolic metamaterials with an extreme ultra-violet transient grating

Tlek Tapani·Hannes Kempf·Matteo Pancaldi·Laura Foglia·Emanuele Pedersoli·Roberta Totani·Adriana Valerio·Riccardo Mincigrucci·Ivaylo Nikolov·Miltcho B. Danailov·Aitor De Andrés·Roman Krahne·Paolo Vavassori·Filippo Bencivenga·Flavio Capotondi·Denis Garoli·Nicolò Maccaferri

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Abstract

Manipulating materials properties with light drives advances in materials science and photonics. Hyperbolic metamaterials are promising candidates as next-generation quantum optical media. They support Bloch plasmon polaritons, which are characterized by potentially infinite wave-vectors and long lifetimes, but cannot be excited through direct light illumination due to momentum mismatch. Here, we experimentally show that a transient grating, formed via interference of fully coherent seeded free-electron laser pulses in a thin insulator film, enables the excitation of Bloch plasmon polaritons in an underlying hyperbolic metamaterial. Finite element simulations confirm the role of the transient grating in facilitating phase-matching and mode excitation. Our findings demonstrate a route to spatiotemporally excite Bloch plasmon polaritons modes, offering an alternative to permanently nanostructured gratings and potentially enabling ultrafast control of optical modes excitation.

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Tlek Tapani, Hannes Kempf, Matteo Pancaldi, Laura Foglia, Emanuele Pedersoli, Roberta Totani, Adriana Valerio, Riccardo Mincigrucci, Ivaylo Nikolov, Miltcho B. Danailov, Aitor De Andrés, Roman Krahne, Paolo Vavassori, Filippo Bencivenga, Flavio Capotondi, Denis Garoli, Nicolò Maccaferri. 2026-05-19. Ultrafast excitation of Bloch plasmon polaritons in hyperbolic metamaterials with an extreme ultra-violet transient grating. https://arxiv.org/abs/2605.20513

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