Highly Tunable Phonon Polaritons via Metal Intercalation

Fuente: arXiv
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Auteurs principaux: Stepanova, Mariia, Ngo, Minh, Sakib, Mashnoon Alam, Harris, Wills, Bocanegra, Joshua, Wu, Ruqian, Koski, Kristie J., Shcherbakov, Maxim R.
Format: Preprint
Publié: 2025
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author Stepanova, Mariia
Ngo, Minh
Sakib, Mashnoon Alam
Harris, Wills
Bocanegra, Joshua
Wu, Ruqian
Koski, Kristie J.
Shcherbakov, Maxim R.
author_facet Stepanova, Mariia
Ngo, Minh
Sakib, Mashnoon Alam
Harris, Wills
Bocanegra, Joshua
Wu, Ruqian
Koski, Kristie J.
Shcherbakov, Maxim R.
contents Phonon polaritons in van der Waals crystals offer mid-infrared light confinement deep below the diffraction limit, making them promising for nanophotonics applications. However, the practical use of phonon polaritons remains limited, in part due to the lack of precise control over the phonon polariton dispersion, as crystal lattice vibrations are often inert to external stimuli. Here, we address this challenge by zerovalent metal intercalation of $α$-MoO$_3$. Photo-induced force microscopy shows that introducing tin into the van der Waals gap modulates the phonon polariton dispersion by up to $38.5\pm0.5\%$, which is the highest amount of tunability among non-mechanical modulation approaches, to the best of our knowledge. Intercalation with various metal species preserves the phonon polariton lifetimes, while modulating the dielectric permittivity in agreement with the density functional theory and analytical calculations. Our results establish metal intercalation as a practical route to reconfigurable mid-infrared nanophotonics.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2510_22019
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Highly Tunable Phonon Polaritons via Metal Intercalation
Stepanova, Mariia
Ngo, Minh
Sakib, Mashnoon Alam
Harris, Wills
Bocanegra, Joshua
Wu, Ruqian
Koski, Kristie J.
Shcherbakov, Maxim R.
Materials Science
Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics
Chemical Physics
Optics
Phonon polaritons in van der Waals crystals offer mid-infrared light confinement deep below the diffraction limit, making them promising for nanophotonics applications. However, the practical use of phonon polaritons remains limited, in part due to the lack of precise control over the phonon polariton dispersion, as crystal lattice vibrations are often inert to external stimuli. Here, we address this challenge by zerovalent metal intercalation of $α$-MoO$_3$. Photo-induced force microscopy shows that introducing tin into the van der Waals gap modulates the phonon polariton dispersion by up to $38.5\pm0.5\%$, which is the highest amount of tunability among non-mechanical modulation approaches, to the best of our knowledge. Intercalation with various metal species preserves the phonon polariton lifetimes, while modulating the dielectric permittivity in agreement with the density functional theory and analytical calculations. Our results establish metal intercalation as a practical route to reconfigurable mid-infrared nanophotonics.
title Highly Tunable Phonon Polaritons via Metal Intercalation
topic Materials Science
Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics
Chemical Physics
Optics
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2510.22019