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Multiple and spectrally robust photonic magic angles in reconfigurable α-MoO3 trilayers

Nature Materials volume 22, pages 867–872 (2023)Cite this article

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Abstract

The emergence of a topological transition of the polaritonic dispersion in twisted bilayers of anisotropic van der Waals materials at a given twist angle—the photonic magic angle—results in the diffractionless propagation of polaritons with deep-subwavelength resolution. This type of propagation, generally referred to as canalization, holds promise for the control of light at the nanoscale. However, the existence of a single photonic magic angle hinders such control since the canalization direction in twisted bilayers is unique and fixed for each incident frequency. Here we overcome this limitation by demonstrating multiple spectrally robust photonic magic angles in reconfigurable twisted α-phase molybdenum trioxide (α-MoO3) trilayers. We show that canalization of polaritons can be programmed at will along any desired in-plane direction in a single device with broad spectral ranges. These findings open the door for nanophotonics applications where on-demand control is crucial, such as thermal management, nanoimaging or entanglement of quantum emitters.

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Fig. 1: Photonic magic angles and polariton canalization in reconfigurable trilayers.
Fig. 2: Multiple photonic magic angles and all-angle tunable polariton canalization in twisted trilayers.
Fig. 3: Experimental demonstration of multiple photonic magic angles and tunable polariton canalization in twisted trilayers.
Fig. 4: Spectrally robust photonic magic angles and broadband polariton canalization in twisted trilayers.

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Data availability

The data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding authors upon reasonable request.

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Acknowledgements

A.I.F.T.-M. and G.Á.-P. acknowledge support from the Severo Ochoa program of the Government of the Principality of Asturias (nos. PA-21-PF-BP20-117 and PA-20-PF-BP19-053, respectively). J.M.-S. acknowledges financial support from the Ramón y Cajal Program of the Government of Spain and FSE (RYC2018-026196-I) and the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation (State Plan for Scientific and Technical Research and Innovation grant no. PID2019-110308GA-I00). P.A.-G. acknowledges support from the European Research Council under starting grant no. 715496, 2DNANOPTICA and the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation (State Plan for Scientific and Technical Research and Innovation grant no. PID2019-111156GB-I00). A.Y.N. acknowledges the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation (grant PID2020-115221GB-C42) and the Basque Department of Education (grant PIBA-2020-1-0014). This project has also been supported by Asturias FICYT under grant AYUD/2021/51185 with the support of FEDER funds. These results also received support from a fellowship from ‘la Caixa’ Foundation (ID 100010434). The fellowship code is LCF/BQ/DI21/11860026. In addition, this work was supported by a 2022 Leonardo Grant for Researchers in Physics, BBVA Foundation. The foundation takes no responsibility for the opinions, statements and contents of this project, which are entirely the responsibility of its authors.

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Author notes

  1. These authors contributed equally: J. Duan, G. Álvarez-Pérez, C. Lanza, K. Voronin.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Physics, University of Oviedo, Oviedo, Spain

    J. Duan, G. Álvarez-Pérez, C. Lanza, A. I. F. Tresguerres-Mata, J. Álvarez-Cuervo, A. Tarazaga Martín-Luengo, J. Martín-Sánchez & P. Alonso-González

  2. Center of Research on Nanomaterials and Nanotechnology, CINN (CSIC-Universidad de Oviedo), El Entrego, Spain

    J. Duan, G. Álvarez-Pérez, J. Martín-Sánchez & P. Alonso-González

  3. Centre for Quantum Physics, Key Laboratory of Advanced Optoelectronic Quantum Architecture and Measurement (MOE), School of Physics, Beijing Institute of Technology, Beijing, China

    J. Duan

  4. Beijing Key Laboratory of Nanophotonics and Ultrafine Optoelectronic Systems, Beijing Institute of Technology, Beijing, China

    J. Duan

  5. Donostia International Physics Center (DIPC), Donostia, San Sebastián, Spain

    K. Voronin, N. Capote-Robayna & A. Y. Nikitin

  6. XPANCEO, Bayan Business Center, DIP, Dubai, UAE

    V. S. Volkov

  7. IKERBASQUE, Basque Foundation for Science, Bilbao, Spain

    A. Y. Nikitin

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Contributions

J.D. and P.A.-G. conceived the study. P.A.-G. and A.Y.N. supervised the project. J.D. and A.I.F.T-M. fabricated the twisted samples. J.D. carried out the near-field imaging experiments. C.L., K.V. and G.Á.-P. carried out the numerical simulations and analytical calculations with the help of N.C.-R. and A.T.M.-L. J.D., P.A.-G., A.Y.N., J.M.-S., V.S.V. and G.Á.-P. participated in the data analysis. J.D., P.A.-G., G.Á.-P. and C.L. co-wrote the manuscript with input from the rest of the authors.

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Correspondence to J. Duan, A. Y. Nikitin or P. Alonso-González.

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Nature Materials thanks Andrey Bogdanov, Qiong Ma and the other, anonymous, reviewer(s) for their contribution to the peer review of this work.

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Duan, J., Álvarez-Pérez, G., Lanza, C. et al. Multiple and spectrally robust photonic magic angles in reconfigurable α-MoO3 trilayers. Nat. Mater. 22, 867–872 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41563-023-01582-5

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