Ultraconfined THz Phonon Polaritons in Hafnium Dichalcogenides

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates ultraconfined terahertz phonon polaritons in hafnium dichalcogenides, achieving confinement beyond previous limits due to strong light-matter coupling and hyperbolicity, advancing THz nanophotonics.

Contribution

It reports the first observation of extreme phonon polariton confinement exceeding {1}0/250 in hafnium-based dichalcogenides, highlighting the role of light-matter coupling and hyperbolicity.

Findings

Confinement factors exceeding {1}0/250 in HfSe2.

Strong light-matter coupling enables extreme confinement.

Hafnium dichalcogenides are promising for THz nanophotonics.

Abstract

The confinement of electromagnetic radiation to subwavelength scales relies on strong light-matter interactions. In the infrared (IR) and terahertz (THz) spectral ranges, phonon polaritons are commonly employed to achieve extremely subdiffractional light confinement, with much lower losses as compared to plasmon polaritons. Among these, hyperbolic phonon polaritons in anisotropic materials offer a highly promising platform for light confinement, which, however, typically plateaus at values of {\lambda}0/100, with {\lambda}0 being the free-space incident wavelength. In this study, we report on ultraconfined phonon polaritons in hafnium-based dichalcogenides with confinement factors exceeding {\lambda}0/250 in the terahertz spectral range. This extreme light compression within deeply sub-wavelength thin films is enabled by the unprecedented magnitude of the light-matter coupling strength in these compounds, and the natural hyperbolicity of HfSe2 in particular. Our findings emphasize the critical role of light-matter coupling for polariton confinement, which for phonon polaritons in polar dielectrics is dictated by the transverse-longitudinal optic phonon energy splitting. Our results demonstrate transition metal dichalcogenides as an enabling platform for THz nanophotonic applications that push the limits of light control.