Integrated Photonic Functions Using Anisotropic 2D Material Structures

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates how anisotropic 2D materials can be engineered to support guided modes with centralized fields, enabling advanced photonic functions in ultra-compact, 2D-based plasmonic circuits.

Contribution

It introduces a novel approach to tailor modal fields in 2D material waveguides by leveraging anisotropy and absorption regulation, expanding functionalities beyond traditional 3D dielectric waveguides.

Findings

Modal fields can be localized at the waveguide center using anisotropic 2D materials.

Enhanced coupling efficiencies for photonic devices are achieved.

Natural anisotropic 2D materials like black phosphorus enable new photonic functionalities.

Abstract

Plasmonic waveguides based on 2D materials, which enable the formations of guided modes confined around few-layered material, are promising plasmonic platforms for the miniaturization of photonic devices. Nonetheless, such waveguides support modes that are evanescent in the waveguide core with the majority of the fields concentrated around waveguide edges, which are different from those supported by 3D dielectric waveguides where the modal fields are of oscillatory nature and peak at the center. As a result, many photonic devices and functionalities that can be achieved within 3D dielectric waveguides based on total-internal-reflation modes cannot be realized using 2D material-based plasmonic structures. In this work, we propose and demonstrate how to leverage anisotropy in 2D materials to tailor of modal fields supported by 2D material waveguide for the first time. By regulating material absorption of the constituent 2D materials, the modal fields of these 2D modes can be tailored to localize around the waveguide center, which in turn can improve the efficiencies of coupling-based photonic functions using 2D materials, from in-plane multimode-interference couplers to out-of-plane optical radiation. Using natural anisotropic 2D materials such as black phosphorus, these pivotal functions can expand existing device capabilities that are typically achieved in 3D dielectrics but using 2D materials, thus allowing for the implementation of 2D plasmonic circuits with no need to relying on 3D layers.