Programmable Bloch polaritons in graphene

Lin Xiong, Yutao Li, Minwoo Jung, Carlos Forsythe, Shuai Zhang, Alexander S. McLeod, Yinan Dong, Song Liu, Frank L. Ruta, Casey Li, Kenji Watanabe, Takashi Taniguchi, Michael M. Fogler, James H. Edgar, Gennady Shvets, Cory R. Dean, D. N. Basov

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

12 Scopus citations

Abstract

Efficient control of photons is enabled by hybridizing light with matter. The resulting light-matter quasi-particles can be readily programmed by manipulating either their photonic or matter constituents. Here, we hybridized infrared photons with graphene Dirac electrons to form surface plasmon polaritons (SPPs) and uncovered a previously unexplored means to control SPPs in structures with periodically modulated carrier density. In these periodic structures, common SPPs with continuous dispersion are transformed into Bloch polaritons with attendant discrete bands separated by bandgaps. We explored directional Bloch polaritons and steered their propagation by dialing the proper gate voltage. Fourier analysis of the near-field images corroborates that this on-demand nano-optics functionality is rooted in the polaritonic band structure. Our programmable polaritonic platform paves the way for the much-sought benefits of on-the-chip photonic circuits.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Article numbereabe8087
JournalScience Advances
Volume7
Issue number19
DOIs
StatePublished - May 1 2021
Externally publishedYes

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2021 The Authors, some rights reserved; exclusive licensee American Association for the Advancement of Science. No claim to original U.S. Government Works. Distributed under a Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial License 4.0 (CC BY-NC).

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