Emerging materials for photonics: MXenes

The recent advent of tailorable, quasi-2D photonic materials such as two-dimensional van der Waals materials, atomically-thin metals, ultra-thin plasmonic ceramics including transition metal nitrides (TMNs) and MXenes is currently driving the development of new concepts and devices for IT, communication, sustainable energy and quantum technologies. In addition to great tailorability of their optical properties, strong plasmonic behavior, greatly enhanced optical nonlinearities, these materials offer pathways to uncovering new optical and quantum phenomena ranging from epsilon-near-zero behavior to transdimensional photonics and strongly correlated systems. In this talk, we explore properties of TMNs (titanium nitride, zirconium nitride) and MXenes for optical applications and for demonstrating new physical effects in atomically thin, transdimensional plasmonic films related to strong light confinement and metal-to-insulator transition.