Sub-diffractional volume-confined polaritons in the natural hyperbolic material hexagonal boron nitride
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Author(s)
Type
Journal Article
Abstract
Strongly anisotropic media, where the principal components of the dielectric tensor have opposite signs, are called hyperbolic. Such materials exhibit unique nanophotonic properties enabled by the highly directional propagation of slow-light modes localized at deeply sub-diffractional length scales. While artificial hyperbolic metamaterials have been demonstrated, they suffer from high plasmonic losses and require complex nanofabrication, which in turn induces size-dependent limitations on optical confinement. The low-loss, mid-infrared, natural hyperbolic material hexagonal boron nitride is an attractive alternative. Here we report on three-dimensionally confined ‘hyperbolic polaritons’ in boron nitride nanocones that support four series (up to the seventh order) modes in two spectral bands. The resonant modes obey the predicted aspect ratio dependence and exhibit high-quality factors (Q up to 283) in the strong confinement regime (up to λ/86). These observations assert hexagonal boron nitride as a promising platform for studying novel regimes of light–matter interactions and nanophotonic device engineering.
Date Issued
2014-10-17
Date Acceptance
2014-09-10
Citation
Nature Communications, 2014, 5 (7)
ISSN
2041-1723
Publisher
Nature Publishing Group
Journal / Book Title
Nature Communications
Volume
5
Issue
7
Copyright Statement
© 2014, Rights Managed by Nature Publishing Group. Article available under a Creative Commons CC BY licence.
License URL
Sponsor
Engineering & Physical Science Research Council (E
Grant Number
EP/D063329/1
Subjects
Optical physics
Nanotechnology
Physical sciences
Condensed matter
Publication Status
Published
Article Number
ARTN 5221