Manipulation and steering of hyperbolic surface polaritons in hexagonal boron nitride

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates how to effectively excite, control, and steer hyperbolic surface polaritons in hexagonal boron nitride by engineering its geometry and orientation, using IR nano-imaging and simulations.

Contribution

It introduces a method to manipulate hyperbolic surface polaritons in hBN through geometric design, enabling advanced control over their propagation.

Findings

HSPs can be excited and controlled via geometry and orientation.

Reflection, transmission, and scattering of HSPs depend on corner apex angles.

Geometry engineering enables precise steering of HSPs.

Abstract

Hexagonal boron nitride (hBN) is a natural hyperbolic material that supports both volume-confined hyperbolic polaritons (HPs) and sidewall-confined hyperbolic surface polaritons (HSPs). In this work, we demonstrate effective excitation, control and steering of HSPs in hBN through engineering the geometry and orientation of hBN sidewalls. By combining infrared (IR) nano-imaging and numerical simulations, we investigate the reflection, transmission and scattering of HSPs at the hBN corners with various apex angles. We show that the sidewall-confined nature of HSPs enables a high degree of control over their propagation by designing the geometry of hBN nanostructures.