Nanoscopic Hyperlensing from Natural and Monoisotopic Hexagonal Boron Nitride Crystals

POSTER

Abstract

Hyperbolic media, where the permittivity is opposite in sign along orthogonal axes, support highly directional propagation of volume-confined, hyperbolic polaritons (HPs) for use in super-resolution imaging via the hyperlens concept. Hexagonal boron nitride (hBN), a natural hyperbolic material, supports deeply subdiffractional, low-loss HPs in both planar slabs and nanoscale resonators within the mid- to long wavelength IR. These losses could be reduced even further by using monoisotopic (i.e. material with just a single boron isotope) hBN. Here we exploit these ultralow losses and natural hyperbolic response to realize unprecedented spatial resolution in hyperlensing with long-wavelength IR light. We provide a direct comparison of the imaging power of hyperlens designs using flat slabs of naturally abundant and monoisotopic hBN via scattering-type near field optical microscopy (s-SNOM). Our experimental (s-SNOM) and simulated results show the ability to resolve features as small as 50 nm with 6-7.1 µm free-space wavelength light, providing at least l/125 spatial resolution. We complement this with electromagnetic field simulations of the hyperlens response to demonstrate and quantify the improvements from the monoisotopic over the naturally abundant materials.

*ASEE

Presenters

  • Swathi Iyer

    • United States Naval Research Laboratory

Authors

  • Swathi Iyer

    • United States Naval Research Laboratory

  • Alexander Giles

    • United States Naval Research Laboratory

  • Sai Sunku

    • Department of Applied Physics and Mathematics, Columbia University in the City of New York
    • Department of Physics, Columbia University, New York 10027
    • Columbia University

  • Thomas Folland

    • Mechanical Engineering Department, , Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN, USA

  • Nicholas Sharac

    • United States Naval Research Laboratory

  • Song Liu

    • Tim Taylor Department of Chemical Engineering, Kansas State University, Manhattan, Kansas 66506, USA.
    • Kansas State University

  • James H. Edgar

    • Tim Taylor Department of Chemical Engineering, Kansas State University, Manhattan, Kansas 66506, USA.
    • Kansas State University
    • Tim Taylor Dept. of Chemical Engineering, Kansas State University

  • Dimitri Basov

    • Department of Physics, Columbia University in the City of New York
    • Department of Physics, Columbia University, New York 10027
    • department of physics, columbia university
    • Department of Physics, Columbia University
    • Physics, Columbia University
    • Columbia University

  • Joshua D Caldwell

    • Mechanical Engineering Department, , Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN, USA
    • Mechanical Engineering Dept, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN, USA
    • Electrical and Mechanical Engineering, Vanderbilt University