In-plane Exciton Polaritons vs Plasmon Polaritons: Nonlocal corrections, confinement and loss

Abstract

Polaritons are quasi-particles describing the coupling between a photon and a material excitation, which can carry large momentum and confine electromagnetic fields to small dimensions, enabling strong light-matter interactions. In the visible (VIS) to near-infrared (NIR) spectral ranges, the intraband response of metals gives rise to surface-plasmon-polaritons (SPPs), which have practically governed polaritonic response and its utilization in nanophotonics. Recently, the concept of interband-based VIS/NIR in-plane exciton polaritons has been introduced in two-dimensional materials, such as transition-metal-dichalcogenides (TMDs), thus providing an excitonic alternative to plasmonic systems. Here, we compare the properties of such in-plane exciton polaritons supported by monolayer TMDs to the equivalent configuration of SPPs supported by thin metallic films, known as the short-range-SPPs (SRSPPs). Taking into account both excitonic and plasmonic nonlocal corrections, which play a major role in large momentum modes, we find that in-plane exciton polaritons provide confinement factors that are an order of magnitude larger than those of SRSPPs, and with six times lower propagation losses. In addition, we show that unlike SPPs, in-plane exciton polaritons are coupled to the TMD's valley degree of freedom, leading to directional propagation that depends on the exciton's valley. These properties make in-plane exciton polaritons promising candidates for VIS/NIR nanophotonics and strong light-matter interaction.

References in corpus (6)

• Graphene plasmonics
• Highly confined low-loss plasmons in graphene-boron nitride heterostructures
• Sub-diffractional, volume-confined polaritons in a natural hyperbolic material: hexagonal boron nitride
• Robust optical emission polarization in MoS2 monolayers through selective valley excitation
• Nanoscale chiral valley-photon interface through optical spin-orbit coupling
• Prediction of hyperbolic exciton-polaritons in monolayer black phosphorus

Cited by in corpus (8)

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• Photonics in Flatland: Challenges and Opportunities for Nanophotonics with 2D Semiconductors
• The Importance of Pure Dephasing in the Optical Response of Excitons in High-quality van der Waals Heterostructures
• Nanometer-scale Cavities for Mid-infrared Radiation via Image Phonon Polariton Resonators
• Temperature-dependent Optical and Polaritonic Properties of hBN-encapsulated Monolayer TMDs
• Strongly Coupled Exciton--Hyperbolic-phonon-polariton Hybridized States in hBN-encapsulated Biased Bilayer Graphene
• Canalized hyperbolic magnetoexciton polaritons enabled by the Shubnikov-de Haas effect in van der Waals semiconductors