skip to main content
OSTI.GOV title logo U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information

Title: Transverse-electric Brewster effect enabled by nonmagnetic two-dimensional materials

Abstract

It was discovered in the 19th century, the Brewster effect is known to occur for transverse-magnetic waves in regular optical dielectrics; however, it is believed to arise for transverse-electric (TE) waves only in systems with magnetic responses, i.e., nonunity effective relative permeability. This paper introduces a scheme to realize the TE Brewster effect in a homogeneous dielectric interface without magnetic responses, by adding ultrathin two-dimensional (2D) materials such as graphene. In particular, the effect remains even for waves approaching normal incidence, spanning from terahertz to visible frequencies. In contrast to the conventional Brewster effect, the graphene-assisted TE Brewster effect is asymmetric, and can be achieved only when the incidence is from the higher-refractive-index side. Moreover, graphene layers can tailor a total-internal-reflection dielectric interface into zero reflection, accompanied by perfect absorption. This control over TE waves enabled by ultrathin 2D materials may lead to a variety of applications, such as atomically thin absorbers, polarizers, and antireflection coating.

Authors:
 [1];  [2];  [2];  [3];  [2]
  1. Zhejiang Univ., Hangzhou (China); Massachusetts Inst. of Technology (MIT), Cambridge, MA (United States)
  2. Massachusetts Inst. of Technology (MIT), Cambridge, MA (United States)
  3. Zhejiang Univ., Hangzhou (China)
Publication Date:
Research Org.:
Energy Frontier Research Centers (EFRC) (United States). Solid-State Solar-Thermal Energy Conversion Center (S3TEC)
Sponsoring Org.:
USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES)
OSTI Identifier:
1388439
Alternate Identifier(s):
OSTI ID: 1298337
Grant/Contract Number:  
SC0001299; FG02-09ER46577; DESC0001299
Resource Type:
Journal Article: Accepted Manuscript
Journal Name:
Physical Review A
Additional Journal Information:
Journal Volume: 94; Journal Issue: 2; Related Information: S3TEC partners with Massachusetts Institute of Technology (lead); Boston College; Oak Ridge National Laboratory; Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute; Journal ID: ISSN 2469-9926
Publisher:
American Physical Society (APS)
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Subject:
36 MATERIALS SCIENCE; solar (photovoltaic); solar (thermal); solid state lighting; phonons; thermal conductivity; thermoelectric; defects; mechanical behavior; charge transport; spin dynamics; materials and chemistry by design; optics; synthesis (novel materials); synthesis (self-assembly); synthesis (scalable processing)

Citation Formats

Lin, Xiao, Shen, Yichen, Kaminer, Ido, Chen, Hongsheng, and Soljačić, Marin. Transverse-electric Brewster effect enabled by nonmagnetic two-dimensional materials. United States: N. p., 2016. Web. doi:10.1103/PhysRevA.94.023836.
Lin, Xiao, Shen, Yichen, Kaminer, Ido, Chen, Hongsheng, & Soljačić, Marin. Transverse-electric Brewster effect enabled by nonmagnetic two-dimensional materials. United States. https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevA.94.023836
Lin, Xiao, Shen, Yichen, Kaminer, Ido, Chen, Hongsheng, and Soljačić, Marin. 2016. "Transverse-electric Brewster effect enabled by nonmagnetic two-dimensional materials". United States. https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevA.94.023836. https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1388439.
@article{osti_1388439,
title = {Transverse-electric Brewster effect enabled by nonmagnetic two-dimensional materials},
author = {Lin, Xiao and Shen, Yichen and Kaminer, Ido and Chen, Hongsheng and Soljačić, Marin},
abstractNote = {It was discovered in the 19th century, the Brewster effect is known to occur for transverse-magnetic waves in regular optical dielectrics; however, it is believed to arise for transverse-electric (TE) waves only in systems with magnetic responses, i.e., nonunity effective relative permeability. This paper introduces a scheme to realize the TE Brewster effect in a homogeneous dielectric interface without magnetic responses, by adding ultrathin two-dimensional (2D) materials such as graphene. In particular, the effect remains even for waves approaching normal incidence, spanning from terahertz to visible frequencies. In contrast to the conventional Brewster effect, the graphene-assisted TE Brewster effect is asymmetric, and can be achieved only when the incidence is from the higher-refractive-index side. Moreover, graphene layers can tailor a total-internal-reflection dielectric interface into zero reflection, accompanied by perfect absorption. This control over TE waves enabled by ultrathin 2D materials may lead to a variety of applications, such as atomically thin absorbers, polarizers, and antireflection coating.},
doi = {10.1103/PhysRevA.94.023836},
url = {https://www.osti.gov/biblio/1388439}, journal = {Physical Review A},
issn = {2469-9926},
number = 2,
volume = 94,
place = {United States},
year = {Thu Aug 18 00:00:00 EDT 2016},
month = {Thu Aug 18 00:00:00 EDT 2016}
}

Journal Article:

Citation Metrics:
Cited by: 19 works
Citation information provided by
Web of Science

Save / Share:

Works referenced in this record:

Two-dimensional material nanophotonics
journal, November 2014


Dyadic Green’s functions and guided surface waves for a surface conductivity model of graphene
journal, March 2008


Ab initio optical study of graphene on hexagonal boron nitride and fluorographene substrates
journal, January 2013


Graphene plasmonics
journal, November 2012


Graphene Plasmonics: A Platform for Strong Light–Matter Interactions
journal, August 2011


Metamaterial broadband angular selectivity
journal, September 2014


Inversion of critical angle and Brewster angle in anisotropic left-handed metamaterials
journal, June 2005


Brewster effect in metafilms composed of bi-anisotropic split-ring resonators
journal, January 2015


Broadband angular selectivity of light at the nanoscale: Progress, applications, and outlook
journal, February 2016


Subwavelength Multilayer Dielectrics: Ultrasensitive Transmission and Breakdown of Effective-Medium Theory
journal, December 2014


Matching and funneling light at the plasmonic Brewster angle
journal, January 2012


New Electromagnetic Mode in Graphene
journal, July 2007


Plasmonic Brewster Angle: Broadband Extraordinary Transmission through Optical Gratings
journal, March 2011


Would Brewster recognize today's Brewster angle?
journal, January 1989


Thin Perfect Absorbers for Electromagnetic Waves: Theory, Design, and Realizations
journal, March 2015


Broadband absorbers and selective emitters based on plasmonic Brewster metasurfaces
journal, May 2013


Plasmonics in graphene at infrared frequencies
journal, December 2009


Space-time dispersion of graphene conductivity
journal, April 2007


Transformation Optics Using Graphene
journal, June 2011


Rayleigh Imaging of Graphene and Graphene Layers
journal, September 2007


Analytic solution of the pseudo-Brewster angle
journal, January 1986


Electromagnetic wave propagation through a dielectric–chiral interface and through a chiral slab
journal, January 1988


Graphene-Like Two-Dimensional Materials
journal, January 2013


Graphical approach to Fresnel’s equations for reflection and refraction of light
journal, August 1980


Generalized Brewster effect in dielectric metasurfaces
journal, January 2016


Ab initio study of electronic and optical behavior of two-dimensional silicon carbide
journal, January 2013


Magnetic Brewster angle
journal, May 1995


s-polarization Brewster's angle of stratified metal-dielectric metamaterial in optical regime
journal, December 2008


Unusual Microwave Response of Dirac Quasiparticles in Graphene
journal, June 2006


Broadband Brewster transmission through 2D metallic gratings
journal, November 2012


Dissipative plasmon-solitons in multilayer graphene: Dissipative plasmon-solitons in multilayer graphene
journal, December 2013


Tunable infrared plasmonic devices using graphene/insulator stacks
journal, April 2012


Metamaterials and Negative Refractive Index
journal, August 2004


Perfect magnetic mirror and simple perfect absorber in the visible spectrum
journal, March 2015


Optical Broadband Angular Selectivity
journal, March 2014


Works referencing / citing this record:

All-angle Brewster effect observed on a terahertz metasurface
journal, May 2019


Metasurfaces in terahertz waveband
journal, October 2017


Functional metasurfaces based on metallic and dielectric subwavelength slits and stripes array
journal, March 2018


Unveiling optical in-plane anisotropy of 2D materials from oblique incidence of light
journal, May 2019


Controlling photonic spin Hall effect via exceptional points
journal, September 2019


Controlling photonic spin Hall effect via exceptional points
text, January 2019