Near-field probing of image phonon-polaritons in hexagonal boron nitride on gold crystals

Journal:
Science Advances
Published:
DOI:
10.1126/sciadv.abn0627
Affiliations:
9
Authors:
10
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Research Highlight

Gold-standard substrate for microscopy of ultrathin crystals

© ROBERT BROOK/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY/Getty Images

Atomically-smooth crystals of gold provide the perfect platform for precisely probing compressed light waves in ultrathin crystals that are promising for use in future nanodevices.

A special light microscope equipped with a nanoscale tip is used to measure particle-like entities created by light interacting with atomic vibrations in crystals consisting of multiple atomic sheets held together by the relatively weak van der Waal force. But they generate complex output that is difficult to analyse. Furthermore, some of the signal is lost to the substrate supporting the crystal.

Now, a team led by researchers from the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) in South Korea has shown that using atomically-smooth gold crystals can help with both problems.

Single crystals of gold should make good substrates for imaging other ultrathin materials, the researchers say.

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References

  1. Science Advances 8, eabn0627 (2022). doi: 10.1126/sciadv.abn0627
Institutions Authors Share
Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST), South Korea
3.000000
 0.30
University of Southern Denmark (SDU), Denmark
1.500000
 0.15
Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne (EPFL), Switzerland
1.000000
 0.10
Korea Institute of Science and Technology (KIST), South Korea
1.000000
 0.10
Research Center for Functional Materials (RCFM), NIMS, Japan
1.000000
 0.10
WPI International Center for Materials Nanoarchitectonics (WPI-MANA), NIMS, Japan
1.000000
 0.10
University of Minnesota (UMN), United States of America (USA)
1.000000
 0.10
University of Science and Technology (UST), South Korea
0.500000
 0.05