Topological polaritons and photonic magic angles in twisted α-MoO3 bilayers

Nature
Guangwei HuAndrea Alu

Abstract

Twisted two-dimensional bilayer materials exhibit many exotic electronic phenomena. Manipulating the 'twist angle' between the two layers enables fine control of the electronic band structure, resulting in magic-angle flat-band superconductivity1,2, the formation of moiré excitons3-8 and interlayer magnetism9. However, there are limited demonstrations of such concepts for photons. Here we show how analogous principles, combined with extreme anisotropy, enable control and manipulation of the photonic dispersion of phonon polaritons in van der Waals bilayers. We experimentally observe tunable topological transitions from open (hyperbolic) to closed (elliptical) dispersion contours in bilayers of α-phase molybdenum trioxide (α-MoO3), arising when the rotation between the layers is at a photonic magic twist angle. These transitions are induced by polariton hybridization and are controlled by a topological quantity. At the transitions the bilayer dispersion flattens, exhibiting low-loss tunable polariton canalization and diffractionless propagation with a resolution of less than λ0/40, where λ0 is the free-space wavelength. Our findings extend twistronics10 and moiré physics to nanophotonics and polaritonics, with potential applicat...Continue Reading

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Citations

Jul 15, 2020·Nature Materials·Mingyuan ChenSiyuan Dai
Oct 10, 2020·Science·Wenjing LiuRitesh Agarwal
Dec 4, 2020·Advanced Materials·Thales V A G de OliveiraLukas M Eng
Mar 6, 2021·Physical Review Letters·Adam OvervigAndrea Alù
Apr 17, 2021·Physical Review Letters·Beicheng LouShanhui Fan
May 13, 2021·Nano Letters·Zhen TongThomas Frauenheim
May 14, 2021·The Journal of Physical Chemistry Letters·Su-Yun WangZhi-Bo Liu
Jun 19, 2021·Nano Letters·Guangxin NiD N Basov
Jun 24, 2021·Nano Letters·Cheng-Wei QiuYuri Kivshar
Jul 25, 2021·Science Advances·Qinghai TanWei-Bo Gao
Jul 17, 2021·Nature Communications·J DuanP Alonso-González
Jul 31, 2021·Light, Science & Applications·Haoning TangEric Mazur
Aug 8, 2021·Molecules : a Journal of Synthetic Chemistry and Natural Product Chemistry·Guangyu DuQiaoliang Bao
Aug 18, 2021·Nature Nanotechnology·Xin-Rui MaoRen-Min Ma
Aug 18, 2020·Nano Letters·Yuanjie YangCheng-Wei Qiu
Sep 19, 2020·Journal of the American Chemical Society·Kunyan ZhangShengxi Huang
Sep 24, 2020·Nano Letters·Hanan Herzig Sheinfux, Frank H L Koppens
Sep 10, 2021·Nature·Qing ZhangCheng-Wei Qiu
Sep 18, 2021·Nano Letters·Mingze HeJoshua D Caldwell
Oct 7, 2021·ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces·Sina Abedini DereshgiKoray Aydin
Oct 9, 2021·Advanced Materials·Lin Xu, Huanyang Chen

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Methods Mentioned

BETA
optical
atomic force microscopy
imaging technique
scanning electron microscopy
AFM

Software Mentioned

Lumerical FDTD
SNOM

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