Deterministic control over launching efficiency of higher-order hyperbolic phonon polaritons
Abstract
Hyperbolic materials, which exhibit an extreme form of birefringence enabling the volume confinement and frequency-dependent propagation of deeply sub-diffractional optical modes, offer the opportunity for extreme confinement via the stimulation polaritonic modes, with substantially higher confinement obtained through the efficient excitation of of the higher-order (shorter wavelength) hyperbolic polaritonic modes, which they can support. However, while these higher-order hyperbolic polaritons (HO-HPhPs) form high-momentum ray-like propagation within the bulk, efficient excitation of these modes, especially in contrast to the long-wavelength lower-momentum surface polariton propagating modes, has remained a challenge. Critically, the large momentum mismatch between these modes and free-space light, alongside the spatial mismatch between the sub-diffractional scatterer and the distinct modal distribution of HO-HPhPs, lead to a suppressed launching efficiency of these higher-order modes, limiting their use in nanophotonic applications. Here, we report the experimental observation of a 10-fold enhancement in the excitation efficiency of HO-HPhPs through the use of subsurface scatterers over traditional surface scattering (e.g. a flake edge or gold launcher) within single-crystalline α-MoO3 slabs. We employ full-wave numerical simulations to investigate the role of the spatial overlap between HO-HPhP modal distributions and the scatterer placement upon excitation efficiency. Furthermore, we develop a generalized process using transfer matrix method to selectively design modal HO-HPhP excitation, which advances the capabilities of HPhP multiplexing for on-chip applications.
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BibTeX
@misc{arnaud2026deterministic,
title = {{Deterministic control over launching efficiency of higher-order hyperbolic phonon polaritons}},
author = {Thiago S. Arnaud and John E. Buchner and Ryan W. Spangler and Maximilian Obst and Jon-Paul Maria and Joshua D. Caldwell},
howpublished = {arXiv},
year = {2026},
month = aug,
doi = {10.48550/arxiv.2608.27733},
eprint = {2608.27733},
archivePrefix = {arXiv},
url = {https://arxiv.org/abs/2608.27733},
note = {CC BY-NC-SA 4.0},
}
RIS
TY - UNPB
TI - Deterministic control over launching efficiency of higher-order hyperbolic phonon polaritons
AU - Thiago S. Arnaud
AU - John E. Buchner
AU - Ryan W. Spangler
AU - Maximilian Obst
AU - Jon-Paul Maria
AU - Joshua D. Caldwell
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/08/27
PB - arXiv
DO - 10.48550/arxiv.2608.27733
UR - https://arxiv.org/abs/2608.27733
AB - Hyperbolic materials, which exhibit an extreme form of birefringence enabling the volume confinement and frequency-dependent propagation of deeply sub-diffractional optical modes, offer the opportunity for extreme confinement via the stimulation polaritonic modes, with substantially higher confinement obtained through the efficient excitation of of the higher-order (shorter wavelength) hyperbolic polaritonic modes, which they can support. However, while these higher-order hyperbolic polaritons (HO-HPhPs) form high-momentum ray-like propagation within the bulk, efficient excitation of these modes, especially in contrast to the long-wavelength lower-momentum surface polariton propagating modes, has remained a challenge. Critically, the large momentum mismatch between these modes and free-space light, alongside the spatial mismatch between the sub-diffractional scatterer and the distinct modal distribution of HO-HPhPs, lead to a suppressed launching efficiency of these higher-order modes, limiting their use in nanophotonic applications. Here, we report the experimental observation of a 10-fold enhancement in the excitation efficiency of HO-HPhPs through the use of subsurface scatterers over traditional surface scattering (e.g. a flake edge or gold launcher) within single-crystalline α-MoO3 slabs. We employ full-wave numerical simulations to investigate the role of the spatial overlap between HO-HPhP modal distributions and the scatterer placement upon excitation efficiency. Furthermore, we develop a generalized process using transfer matrix method to selectively design modal HO-HPhP excitation, which advances the capabilities of HPhP multiplexing for on-chip applications.
ER -