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Hyperbolic whispering-gallery phonon polaritons in boron nitride nanotubes

Nature Nanotechnology volume 18, pages 529–534 (2023)Cite this article

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Abstract

Light confinement in nanostructures produces an enhanced light–matter interaction that enables a vast range of applications including single-photon sources, nanolasers and nanosensors. In particular, nanocavity-confined polaritons display a strongly enhanced light–matter interaction in the infrared regime. This interaction could be further boosted if polaritonic modes were moulded to form whispering-gallery modes; but scattering losses within nanocavities have so far prevented their observation. Here, we show that hexagonal BN nanotubes act as an atomically smooth nanocavity that can sustain phonon-polariton whispering-gallery modes, owing to their intrinsic hyperbolic dispersion and low scattering losses. Hyperbolic whispering-gallery phonon polaritons on BN nanotubes of ～4 nm radius (sidewall of six atomic layers) are characterized by an ultrasmall nanocavity mode volume (Vm ≈ 10–10λ03 at an optical wavelength λ0 ≈ 6.4 μm) and a Purcell factor (Q/Vm) as high as 1012. We posit that BN nanotubes could become an important material platform for the realization of one-dimensional, ultrastrong light–matter interactions, with exciting implications for compact photonic devices.

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Fig. 1: HWG-PhPs in a single BNNT.
Fig. 2: Direct observation of HWG-PhP modes.
Fig. 3: EELS quantitative characterization of HWG-PhP modes.
Fig. 4: Dispersion and Vm confinement of HWG-PhP modes in few-layer BNNTs.

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Data availability

The data that support the findings of this study are available within the paper and the Supplementary Information. Other relevant data are available from the corresponding authors upon reasonable request. Source data are provided with this paper.

Code availability

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

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Acknowledgements

This work was completed especially for the 20th anniversary of the National Center for Nanoscience and Technology, Beijing, China. This work was also supported by the National Key R&D Program of China (2021YFA1201500 to Q.D.; 2021YFA1400500 to E.-G.W.), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (51925203 and U2032206 to Q.D.; 52022025 and 51972074 to X.Y.; 52102160 to X.G.; 52125307, 11974023, 52021006 and T2188101 to P.G.), the Strategic Priority Research Program of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (XDB30000000 to X.Y.; XDB36000000 to Q.D.), the Youth Innovation Promotion Association of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (to X.Y.), the Open Project of Nanjing University (M34034 to Q.D.), the ‘2011 Program’ from the Peking-Tsinghua-IOP Collaborative Innovation Center of Quantum Matter (to P.G.) and the Special Research Assistant Program of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (to X.G.). We also acknowledge the Electron Microscopy Laboratory of Peking University for the use of electron microscopes. F.J.G.d.A. acknowledges support from H2020 European Research Council (ERC) (advanced grant 789104-eNANO), Spanish Ministry for Science and Innovation (MCINN) (PID2020-112625GB-I00 and CEX2019-000910-S) and the Catalan Centres de Recerca de Catalunya (CERCA) Program. In addition, we express our gratitude to X. Zhang (Peking University) and S. Zhang (National Center for Nanoscience and Technology) for their help in sample preparation and characterization.

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Author notes

  1. These authors contributed equally: Xiangdong Guo, Ning Li.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. CAS Key Laboratory of Nanophotonic Materials and Devices, CAS Key Laboratory of Standardization and Measurement for Nanotechnology, CAS Center for Excellence in Nanoscience, National Center for Nanoscience and Technology, Beijing, China

    Xiangdong Guo, Xiaoxia Yang, Chenchen Wu & Qing Dai

  2. Center of Materials Science and Optoelectronics Engineering, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China

    Xiangdong Guo, Xiaoxia Yang, Chenchen Wu & Qing Dai

  3. International Center for Quantum Materials, Electron Microscopy Laboratory, School of Physics, Academy for Advanced Interdisciplinary Studies, Interdisciplinary Institute of Light-Element Quantum Materials and Research Center for Light-Element Advanced Materials, Peking University, Beijing, China

    Ning Li, Ruishi Qi, Ruochen Shi, Yuehui Li & Peng Gao

  4. School of Materials Science and Engineering, Hebei Key Laboratory of Boron Nitride Micro and Nano Materials, Hebei University of Technology, Tianjin, China

    Yang Huang

  5. ICFO-Institut de Ciencies Fotoniques, The Barcelona Institute of Science and Technology, Castelldefels (Barcelona), Spain

    F. Javier García de Abajo

  6. ICREA-Institució Catalana de Recerca i Estudis Avançats, Barcelona, Spain

    F. Javier García de Abajo

  7. Collaborative Innovation Center of Quantum Matter, Beijing, China

    En-Ge Wang & Peng Gao

  8. Songshan Lake Materials Lab, Institute of Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Guangdong, China

    En-Ge Wang

  9. School of Physics, Liaoning University, Shenyang, China

    En-Ge Wang

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  1. Xiangdong Guo
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Contributions

The concept for the experiment was initially developed by Q.D., X.Y. and P.G. Hexagonal BN nanotubes were grown by Y.H.; AFM-IR and s-SNOM experiments were performed by X.G. under the direction of Q.D.; STEM–EELS and TEM imaging experiments were performed by N.L. under the direction of P.G. and E.-G.W.; finite-element-method simulations and theoretical analysis were performed by X.G. under the supervision of Q.D., X.Y. and F.J.G.d.A.; data processing was performed by X.G. and N.L., assisted by C.W., R.Q., Y.L. and R.S.; X.G., X.Y. and Q.D. wrote the manuscript with advice from F.J.G.d.A. and P.G. All authors discussed the results at all stages and participated in the development of the manuscript.

Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Xiaoxia Yang, F. Javier García de Abajo, Peng Gao or Qing Dai.

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Nature Nanotechnology thanks Min Seok Jang and the other, anonymous, reviewer(s) for their contribution to the peer review of this work.

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Supplementary Information

Supplementary Figs. 1–14, Table 1 and Notes 1–5.

Source data

Source Data Fig. 1

Simulation data points of Fig. 1c.

Source Data Fig. 2

Experiment data points of Fig. 2b.

Source Data Fig. 3

Experiment data points of Fig. 3a,b.

Source Data Fig. 4

Experiment data points of Fig. 4a–d.

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Guo, X., Li, N., Yang, X. et al. Hyperbolic whispering-gallery phonon polaritons in boron nitride nanotubes. Nat. Nanotechnol. 18, 529–534 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41565-023-01324-3

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