EPFL Logo
fr|en
Login
Publication

Low-Loss Anisotropic Image Polaritons in van der Waals Crystal alpha-MoO3

Sergejs Boroviks
2022
Journal paper
Abstract

Orthorhombic molybdenum trioxide (alpha-MoO3), a newly discovered polaritonic van der Waals crystal, is attracting significant attention due to its strongly anisotropic mid-infrared phonon-polaritons. At the same time, coupling of polariton with its mirror image in an adjacent metal gives rise to a significantly more confined image mode. Here, monocrystalline gold flakes-an atomically flat low-loss substrate for mid-infrared image polaritons-are employed to measure the full complex-valued propagation constant of the hyperbolic image phonon-polaritons in alpha-MoO3 by near-field probing. The anisotropic dispersion is mapped and the damping of the polaritons propagating at different angles to the crystallographic directions of alpha-MoO3 is analyzed. These experiments demonstrate the strongly confined image phonon-polaritons in alpha-MoO3 exhibiting intrinsic limiting lifetime of 4.2 ps and a propagation length of 4.5 times the polariton wavelength, owing to the negligible substrate-mediated loss. Furthermore, it is shown that the image modes with positive group velocity have simultaneously larger momentum and lifetime compared to their counterparts on a dielectric substrate, while the image modes with negative group velocity possess a smaller momentum. These results spotlight the hyperbolic image phonon-polaritons as a superior platform for unconventional light manipulation at the nanoscale.

Official source
About this result
This page is automatically generated and may contain information that is not correct, complete, up-to-date, or relevant to your search query. The same applies to every other page on this website. Please make sure to verify the information with EPFL's official sources.
Ontological neighbourhood
Physics
Related concepts (35)
Group velocity
The group velocity of a wave is the velocity with which the overall envelope shape of the wave's amplitudes—known as the modulation or envelope of the wave—propagates through space. For example, if a stone is thrown into the middle of a very still pond, a circular pattern of waves with a quiescent center appears in the water, also known as a capillary wave. The expanding ring of waves is the wave group or wave packet, within which one can discern individual waves that travel faster than the group as a whole.
Potential applications of graphene
Potential graphene applications include lightweight, thin, and flexible electric/photonics circuits, solar cells, and various medical, chemical and industrial processes enhanced or enabled by the use of new graphene materials. In 2008, graphene produced by exfoliation was one of the most expensive materials on Earth, with a sample the area of a cross section of a human hair costing more than 1,000asofApril2008(about1,000 as of April 2008 (about 100,000,000/cm2). Since then, exfoliation procedures have been scaled up, and now companies sell graphene in large quantities.
Mirror image
A mirror image (in a plane mirror) is a reflected duplication of an object that appears almost identical, but is reversed in the direction perpendicular to the mirror surface. As an optical effect it results from reflection off from substances such as a mirror or water. It is also a concept in geometry and can be used as a conceptualization process for 3-D structures. Reflectional symmetry In geometry, the mirror image of an object or two-dimensional figure is the formed by reflection in a plane mirror; it is of the same size as the original object, yet different, unless the object or figure has reflection symmetry (also known as a P-symmetry).
Show more
Related publications (46)

Near-field probing of image phonon-polaritons in hexagonal boron nitride on gold crystals

Sergejs Boroviks

Near-field mapping has been widely used to study hyperbolic phonon-polaritons in van der Waals crystals. However, an accurate measurement of the polaritonic loss remains challenging because of the inherent complexity of the near-field signal and the substr ...
AMER ASSOC ADVANCEMENT SCIENCE2022

Ultimate Limit for Optical Losses in Gold, Revealed by Quantitative Near-Field Microscopy

Sergejs Boroviks

We report thorough measurements of surface plasmon polaritons (SPPs) running along nearly perfect air-gold interfaces formed by atomically flat surfaces of chemically synthesized gold monocrystals. By means of amplitude-and phase-resolved near-field micros ...
AMER CHEMICAL SOC2022

Discrete metal nanoparticles with plasmonic chirality

Jijun He

From a geometrical perspective, a chiral object does not have mirror planes or inversion symmetry. It exhibits the same physical properties as its mirror image (enantiomer), except for the chiroptical activity, which is often the opposite. Recent advanceme ...
ROYAL SOC CHEMISTRY2021
Show more
Related MOOCs (5)
Plasma Physics: Introduction
Learn the basics of plasma, one of the fundamental states of matter, and the different types of models used to describe it, including fluid and kinetic.
Plasma Physics: Introduction
Learn the basics of plasma, one of the fundamental states of matter, and the different types of models used to describe it, including fluid and kinetic.
Plasma Physics: Applications
Learn about plasma applications from nuclear fusion powering the sun, to making integrated circuits, to generating electricity.
Show more

Copyright © 2025 EPFL, all rights reserved

Graph Chatbot

Chat with Graph Search

Ask any question about EPFL courses, lectures, exercises, research, news, etc. or try the example questions below.

DISCLAIMER: The Graph Chatbot is not programmed to provide explicit or categorical answers to your questions. Rather, it transforms your questions into API requests that are distributed across the various IT services officially administered by EPFL. Its purpose is solely to collect and recommend relevant references to content that you can explore to help you answer your questions.