Engineering shear polaritons in 2D twisted heterostructures
Materials hosting polaritons with extreme optical anisotropy enable nanoscale light manipulation, crucial for nanophotonic applications. In particular, hyperbolic shear polaritons (HShPs), featuring asymmetric propagation, axial dispersion, and loss redistribution, arise in low-symmetry materials (e.g., β-Ga<sub>2</sub>O<sub>3</sub>, CdWO<sub>4</sub>) through the intricate interplay of photons and non-orthogonal detuned resonant excitations supported by crystals with broken spatial symmetries. Versatile control over HShPs is still challenging to achieve, due to the properties of such bulk natural materials. Here, we unveil engineering and control over HShPs in two-dimensional materials by manipulating twisted bilayers of α-MoO<sub>3</sub>, which does not feature broken lattice symmetry at the material level. Infrared nanoimaging reveals precise control over HShP asymmetry in propagation, loss redistribution and confinement, achieved by adjusting the thickness and twist angle of the bilayer. Integration of a graphene electrostatic gate further enhances this control, enabling dynamic manipulation of HShPs. Our work expands the HShP platform for customizable polaritonics, advancing on-chip photonic applications.
Authors
- Junbo Xu (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7976-389X)
- Andrea Alù (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4297-5274)
- Zhanshan Wang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6022-4933)
- Enrico Maria Renzi (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1374-0326)
- Zerui Wang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0004-1150-0585)
- Di Huang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3698-5158)
- Tao Jiang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8656-1738)
- Yanzhen Yin (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0003-4380-4519)
- Xinbin Cheng (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3855-483X)
- Xiang Ni (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2601-7367)
- Renkang Song (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0002-4579-7116)
- Yu Yin (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4640-250X)
- Zhichen Zhao (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0002-9294-8482)
- Ke Yu
- Zhou Zhou (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0002-5573-8208)
- Lei Zhou (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0008-3550-3528)
Institutions
- Tongji University (CN)
- The Graduate Center, CUNY (US)
- Central South University (CN)
- City University of New York (US)
- CUNY Advanced Science Research Center (US)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Nature Communications
- Published
- 2025-03-26
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-025-58197-4
- Citations
- 13
- Primary Topic
- Plasmonic and Surface Plasmon Research
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 8.76
Funders
- Simons Foundation
- National Natural Science Foundation of China
- Ministry of Science and Technology of the People's Republic of China
- Science and Technology Commission of Shanghai Municipality
- Office of Naval Research