Helicity-selective Raman scattering from in-plane anisotropic {\alpha}-MoO$_3$

TL;DR

This paper reports the observation of helicity-selective Raman scattering in { extalpha}-MoO$_3$, revealing the chiral nature of phonons and their potential for advanced photonic applications involving polarized light.

Contribution

It provides the first detailed study of the chiral character of phonons in hyperbolic { extalpha}-MoO$_3$ and links helicity selectivity to crystal symmetry.

Findings

Both helicity-preserving and reversing Raman scattering observed

Helical selectivity governed by crystal symmetry

Insights into chiral phonon modes in hyperbolic crystals

Abstract

Hyperbolic crystals like {\alpha}-MoO$_3$ can support large wavevectors and photon density as compared to the commonly used dielectric crystals, which makes them a highly desirable platform for compact photonic devices. The extreme anisotropy of the dielectric constant in these crystals is intricately linked with the anisotropic character of the phonons, which along with photon confinement leads to the rich physics of phonon polaritons. However, the chiral nature of phonons in these hyperbolic crystals have not been studied in detail. In this study, we report our observations of helicity selective Raman scattering from flakes of {\alpha}-MoO$_3$. Both helicity-preserving and helicity-reversing Raman scattering are observed. We observe that helical selectivity is largely governed by the underlying crystal symmetry. This study shed light on the chiral character of the high symmetry phonons in these hyperbolic crystals. It paves the way for exploiting proposed schemes of coupling chiral phonon modes into propagating surface plasmon polaritons and for compact photonic circuits based on helical polarized light.