Imaging propagative exciton polaritons in atomically thin waveguides
Abstract
The exciton polariton (EP) is a half-light and half-matter quasiparticle that is promising for exploring both fundamental quantum phenomena as well as photonic applications. Van der Waals materials, such as transition-metal dichalcogenide (TMD), emerge as a promising nanophotonics platform due to its support of long propagative EPs even at room temperature. However, real-space studies have been limited to bulk crystal waveguides with a thickness no less than 60 nm. Here we report the nano-optical imaging of the transverse-electric EPs in WSe2 nanoflakes down to a few atomic layers, which can be turned on and off by tuning the polarization state of the excitation laser. Unlike previously studied transverse-magnetic modes that exist only in bulk TMD waveguides, we found that the transverse-electric EPs could reside in ultrathin WSe2 samples, owing to the alignment of the electric field with the in-plane dipole orientation of two-dimensional excitons. Furthermore, we show that the EP wavelength and propagation length can be largely controlled by varying laser energy and sample thickness. These findings open opportunities to realize near-infrared polaritonic devices and circuits truly at the atomically thin limit.
- Authors:
-
- Iowa State Univ., Ames, IA (United States). Dept. of Physics and Astronomy; Ames Lab. and Iowa State Univ., Ames, IA (United States); Univ. of Colorado, Boulder, CO (United States). Dept. of Mechanical Engineering
- Iowa State Univ., Ames, IA (United States). Dept. of Physics and Astronomy; Ames Lab. and Iowa State Univ., Ames, IA (United States)
- Iowa State Univ., Ames, IA (United States). Dept. of Physics and Astronomy
- Univ. of Washington, Seattle, WA (United States). Dept. of Physics
- Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States). Materials Science and Technology Division; Univ. of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN (United States). Dept. of Materials Science and Engineering
- Univ. of Washington, Seattle, WA (United States). Dept. of Physics, and Dept. of Materials Science and Engineering
- Publication Date:
- Research Org.:
- Ames Laboratory (AMES), Ames, IA (United States); Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)
- Sponsoring Org.:
- USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES)
- OSTI Identifier:
- 1562530
- Alternate Identifier(s):
- OSTI ID: 1560310; OSTI ID: 1564120
- Report Number(s):
- IS-J-10033
Journal ID: ISSN 2469-9950; PRBMDO; TRN: US2000756
- Grant/Contract Number:
- FA9550-18-1-0104; AC02-07CH11358; AC05-00OR22725
- Resource Type:
- Accepted Manuscript
- Journal Name:
- Physical Review B
- Additional Journal Information:
- Journal Volume: 100; Journal Issue: 12; Journal ID: ISSN 2469-9950
- Publisher:
- American Physical Society (APS)
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
- Subject:
- 75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND SUPERFLUIDITY
Citation Formats
Hu, F., Luan, Y., Speltz, J., Zhong, D., Liu, C. H., Yan, J., Mandrus, D. G., Xu, X., and Fei, Z. Imaging propagative exciton polaritons in atomically thin WSe2 waveguides. United States: N. p., 2019.
Web. doi:10.1103/PhysRevB.100.121301.
Hu, F., Luan, Y., Speltz, J., Zhong, D., Liu, C. H., Yan, J., Mandrus, D. G., Xu, X., & Fei, Z. Imaging propagative exciton polaritons in atomically thin WSe2 waveguides. United States. https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.100.121301
Hu, F., Luan, Y., Speltz, J., Zhong, D., Liu, C. H., Yan, J., Mandrus, D. G., Xu, X., and Fei, Z. Wed .
"Imaging propagative exciton polaritons in atomically thin WSe2 waveguides". United States. https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.100.121301. https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1562530.
@article{osti_1562530,
title = {Imaging propagative exciton polaritons in atomically thin WSe2 waveguides},
author = {Hu, F. and Luan, Y. and Speltz, J. and Zhong, D. and Liu, C. H. and Yan, J. and Mandrus, D. G. and Xu, X. and Fei, Z.},
abstractNote = {The exciton polariton (EP) is a half-light and half-matter quasiparticle that is promising for exploring both fundamental quantum phenomena as well as photonic applications. Van der Waals materials, such as transition-metal dichalcogenide (TMD), emerge as a promising nanophotonics platform due to its support of long propagative EPs even at room temperature. However, real-space studies have been limited to bulk crystal waveguides with a thickness no less than 60 nm. Here we report the nano-optical imaging of the transverse-electric EPs in WSe2 nanoflakes down to a few atomic layers, which can be turned on and off by tuning the polarization state of the excitation laser. Unlike previously studied transverse-magnetic modes that exist only in bulk TMD waveguides, we found that the transverse-electric EPs could reside in ultrathin WSe2 samples, owing to the alignment of the electric field with the in-plane dipole orientation of two-dimensional excitons. Furthermore, we show that the EP wavelength and propagation length can be largely controlled by varying laser energy and sample thickness. These findings open opportunities to realize near-infrared polaritonic devices and circuits truly at the atomically thin limit.},
doi = {10.1103/PhysRevB.100.121301},
journal = {Physical Review B},
number = 12,
volume = 100,
place = {United States},
year = {Wed Sep 04 00:00:00 EDT 2019},
month = {Wed Sep 04 00:00:00 EDT 2019}
}
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