Title: Density-independent plasmons for terahertz-stable topological metamaterials

Abstract

To efficiently integrate cutting-edge terahertz technology into compact devices, the highly confined terahertz plasmons are attracting intensive attention. Compared to plasmons at visible frequencies in metals, terahertz plasmons, typically in lightly doped semiconductors or graphene, are sensitive to carrier density (n) and thus have an easy tunability, which leads to unstable or imprecise terahertz spectra. By deriving a simplified but universal form of plasmon frequencies, here, we reveal a unified mechanism for generating unusual n-independent plasmons (DIPs) in all topological states with different dimensions. Remarkably, we predict that terahertz DIPs can be excited in a two-dimensional nodal line and one-dimensional nodal point systems, confirmed by the first-principle calculations on almost all existing topological semimetals with diverse lattice symmetries. Additionally, besides n-independence, the feature of Fermi velocity and degeneracy factor dependencies in DIPs can be applied to design topological superlattice and multiwalled carbon nanotube metamaterials for broadband terahertz spectroscopy and quantized terahertz plasmons, respectively. Surprisingly, high spatial confinement and quality factor, also insensitive to n, can be simultaneously achieved in these terahertz DIPs. Our findings pave the way for developing topological plasmonic devices for stable terahertz applications.

Authors:

Wang, Jianfeng ^[1]; Sui, Xuelei ^[2]; Duan, Wenhui  ^[3];

• Search DOE PAGES for author "Duan, Wenhui"
• Search DOE PAGES for ORCID "0000-0001-9685-2547"

Liu, Feng ^[4]; Huang, Bing ^[5]

---

+ Show Author Affiliations

1. Beijing Computational Science Research Center, 100193 Beijing, China,
2. Beijing Computational Science Research Center, 100193 Beijing, China,, Department of Physics, Tsinghua University, 100084 Beijing, China,, State Key Laboratory of Low-Dimensional Quantum Physics, Tsinghua University, 100084 Beijing, China,
3. Department of Physics, Tsinghua University, 100084 Beijing, China,, State Key Laboratory of Low-Dimensional Quantum Physics, Tsinghua University, 100084 Beijing, China,
4. Department of Materials Science and Engineering, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT 84112,
5. Beijing Computational Science Research Center, 100193 Beijing, China,, Department of Physics, Beijing Normal University, 100875 Beijing, China

Publication Date:

Wed May 05 00:00:00 EDT 2021

Research Org.:

Univ. of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT (United States)

Sponsoring Org.:

USDOE Office of Science (SC); National Science Foundation (NSF); National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC)

OSTI Identifier:

1781902

Alternate Identifier(s):

OSTI ID: 1849533

Grant/Contract Number:  

FG02-04ER46148; 1634003; 12088101; 12004030; 11704023; 11674188; 11874035

Resource Type:

Published Article

Journal Name:

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America

Additional Journal Information:

Journal Name: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America Journal Volume: 118 Journal Issue: 19; Journal ID: ISSN 0027-8424

Publisher:

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences

Country of Publication:

United States

Language:

English

Subject:

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSICS; 36 MATERIALS SCIENCE; Science & Technology - Other Topics; low-dimensional materials; topological semimetals; plasmon; terahertz; electronic structures