Nanophotonics and strong light-matter interaction with multilayer van der Waals materials

The field of nanophotonics requires high quality materials for fabrication of resonant structures that can confine light down to the nanoscale. Recently, layered materials, studied mostly for the unique properties in their atomically thin form and often referred to as "van der Waals materials" for the forces holding atomic planes in bulk crystals, have been introduced as alternative dielectric building blocks for nanophotonics. Compared to Si or III-V semiconductors, these layered materials exhibit higher refractive indices; far larger birefringence values; transparency in the visible and near-infrared; out-of-plane van der Waals adhesive forces. These properties have allowed a variety of photonic structure and device demonstrations for which the use of van der Waals materials either improved performance or enabled previously inaccessible phenomena. Here I will present our recent work on various nanophotonic structures based on van der Waals materials that can be broadly divided into 0D, 1D and 2D systems and can be used for Purcell enhancement, quantum and topological nanophotonics, nonlinear optics, and strong light-matter coupling.