Infrared dielectric metamaterials from high refractive index chalcogenides

Abstract

High-index dielectric materials are in great demand for nanophotonic devices and applications, from ultrathin optical elements to metal-free sub-diffraction light confinement and waveguiding. Here we show that chalcogenide topological insulators are particularly apt candidates for dielectric nanophotonic architectures in the infrared spectral range by reporting metamaterial resonances in chalcogenide crystals sustained well inside the mid-infrared, choosing Bi${}_2$Te${}_3$ as case study within this family of materials. Strong resonant modulation of the incident electromagnetic field is achieved thanks to the exceptionally high refractive index ranging between 7 and 8 throughout the 2-10 $\mu$m region. Analysis of the complex mode structure in the metamaterial allude to the excitation of poloidal surface currents which could open pathways for enhanced light-matter interaction and low-loss plasmonic configurations by coupling to the spin-polarized topological surface carriers, thereby providing new opportunities to combine dielectric, plasmonic and magnetic metamaterials in a single platform.

arXiv comment21 pages, 6 figures

References in corpus (15)

• Quantum ESPRESSO: a modular and open-source software project for quantum simulations of materials
• Topological Insulators
• Topological Insulator Materials
• Yambo: an \textit{ab initio} tool for excited state calculations
• Spintronics and Pseudospintronics in Graphene and Topological Insulators
• Control over topological insulator photocurrents with light polarization
• Observation of Dirac plasmons in a topological insulator
• Transition metal dichalcogenide nanodisks as high-index dielectric Mie nanoresonators
• Optimizing the Bi_(2-x)Sb_(x)Te_(3-y)Se_(y) solid solutions to approach the intrinsic topological insulator regime
• Optical anapoles in nanophotonics and meta-optics
• Ultra-thin, High-efficiency Mid-Infrared Transmissive Huygens Meta-Optics
• Ultraviolet and visible range plasmonics of a topological insulator
• Reconfiguring structured light beams using nonlinear metasurfaces
• Gate-Variable Mid-Infrared Optical Transitions in a $(B{i}_{1-x}S{b}_x{)}_{2}T{e}_3$ Topological Insulator
• Interband absorption edge in topological insulators Bi${}_2$(Te${}_{1-x}$Se${}_x$)${}_3$

Cited by in corpus (2)

• Light-induced half-quantized Hall effect and axion insulator
• High-index and low-loss topological insulators for mid-infrared nanophotonics