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Nanophotonics

Hyperbolic phonon–polaritons

Nature Materials volume 13, pages 1081–1083 (2014)Cite this article

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Hexagonal boron nitride nanostructures are shown to sustain phonon–polariton modes with comparable performances to plasmon–polariton modes in graphene but with lower losses.

Polaritons, collective excitations that originate from the coupling of photons with matter, are uniquely poised to stimulate the generation of applications beyond the reach of conventional electronics and photonics. From exciton–polaritons combining semiconductor electron–hole pairs with light for low threshold lasing1 to plasmon–polaritons mixing free-electrons and photons for nanoconfinement of electromagnetic fields2 on metals, unique applications are being developed for all kinds of polaritons. Thus the recent discovery of strongly confined phonon–polariton modes in hexagonal boron nitride (hBN) could result in new imaging, thermal and quantum applications in the mid-infrared (mid-IR) wavelength region3,4,5.

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Figure 1: hBN phonon–polariton properties.

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  1. Zubin Jacob is in the Department of Electrical and Computing Engineering, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta T6G 2V4, Canada,

    Zubin Jacob

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Jacob, Z. Hyperbolic phonon–polaritons. Nature Mater 13, 1081–1083 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1038/nmat4149

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