Experimental Observation of Dyakonov Plasmons in the Mid-Infrared

Abstract

In this work, we report on observation of Dyakonov plasmons at an interface with a hyperbolic metamaterial in the mid-IR. The hyperbolic metamaterial is implemented as a CMOS-compatible high aspect ratio grating structure with aluminium-doped ZnO (AZO) ridges grown by atomic layer deposition in deep trench silicon matrix. The dispersion of Dyakonov plasmons is characterized by the attenuated total reflection method in the Otto configuration. We demonstrate that Dyakonov plasmons propagate in a broad range of directions (a few tens of degrees) in contrast to the classical Dyakonov surface waves (about one tenth of degree). The obtained results provide useful guidelines for practical implementations of structures supporting Dyakonov plasmons in the mid-IR.

Existence Conditions of High‐k Modes in Finite Hyperbolic Metamaterials

“…Its transparency window m (5000 cm −1 ) suits well for the mid‐IR waves. It has been used, for example, to observe plasmons on doped semiconductors and surface waves on hyperbolic metamaterials . Using a hemispherical Ge prism, the incident angles are varied in the range with 2° steps.…”

“…Artificially engineered structures with distinctive electromagnetic and optical properties known as metamaterials, have been standing out of top research interests in the last decade. Among them stands the promising class of hyperbolic metamaterials (HMMs), with applications such as sub‐diffraction imaging, sensing, nano‐scale manipulation of light–matter interaction like directional propagation of light, and lifetime engineering . Subwavelength metal‐dielectric multilayer HMMs amongst the other configurations such as nanotrenches and nanowires, have attracted widespread interests due to relatively ease of fabrication and extended nomenclature of materials enabling the hyperbolic regime over a broad range of frequencies.…”

Investigation of effective media applicability for ultrathin multilayer structures

“…HMMs have shown various phenomena and applications in engineering photonic density of states 3 , enhanced spontaneous decay and recombination rates 4,5 , super lens beating diffraction limit [6][7][8] , extremely high biosensing sensitivity 9 , polarization selectivity 10 . They can be realized in the visible to mid-infrared wavelength region by a combination of metal and dielectric in the form of multilayers 11-13 , a [14][15][16] , nanorods 17 . The different suitable materials to design HMMs depending on the applications for various wavelength ranges have been studied in detail 18,19 .…”

Controllable Selective Coupling of Dyakonov Surface Waves at a Liquid-Crystal-Based Interface

“…Although predicted three decades ago, it was first observed experimentally until 2009 [31] because of its particular requirement on the relation of the permittivities from these two consisted materials, which was not easy to achieve in practice with natural materials, but on the other hand, made the surface wave highly directional. To date, substantial efforts have been invested to achieve the DSW among different interfaces of uniaxial [32][33], biaxial materials [34][35][36] or even with the help of metamaterials which can supply a strong anisotropy [37][38][39][40][41][42][43][44][45], making its realization more and more promising, and then the steering of the DSW in a tunable way becomes a really desired characteristic but barely studied so far. Here, we introduce and demonstrate a unique behavior of DSW coupling at the nematic liquid crystal 5CB (NLC) / polycarbonate (PC) interface which exhibits a strongly selective input coupling controlled with magnetic field.…”