\ Photonic crystals for nano-light in moire graphene superlattices
- 6 December 2018
- journal article
- research article
- Published by American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) in Science
- Vol. 362 (6419), 1153-+
- https://doi.org/10.1126/science.aau5144
Abstract
Graphene is an atomically thin plasmonic medium that supports highly confined plasmon polaritons, or nano-light, with very low loss. Electronic properties of graphene can be drastically altered when it is laid upon another graphene layer, resulting in a moire superlattice. The relative twist angle between the two layers is a key tuning parameter of the interlayer coupling in thus-obtained twisted bilayer graphene (TBG). We studied the propagation of plasmon polaritons in TBG by infrared nano-imaging. We discovered that the atomic reconstruction occurring at small twist angles transforms the TBG into a natural plasmon photonic crystal for propagating nano-light. This discovery points to a pathway for controlling nano-light by exploiting quantum properties of graphene and other atomically layered van der Waals materials, eliminating the need for arduous top-down nanofabrication.Keywords
Funding Information
- Office of Naval Research (MURI N00014-15-1-2761)
- Office of Naval Research (ONR-N000014-18-1-2722)
- U.S. Department of Energy (DOE-BES Energy Frontiers Center on Programmable Quantum Materials DE-SC0019443)
- Air Force Office of Scientific Research (FA9550-15-1-0478)
- Army Research Office (W911NF-17-1-0574)
- Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation (Quantum Materials EPIQS program GBMF4533)
- Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad (FIS2017-82260-P)
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