The manipulation of light at small scales is important for delicate biomedical treatment, fast optical circuits, super-resolution microscopy and many others. For this purpose, recent efforts typically involve a type of nanoscale optical waves called polariton nano-light. Polariton nano-light travel in materials like water ripples propagating in a pool. They carry the energy of light and are affected by material properties. This project explores the manipulation of polariton nano-light in a new type of layered material: molybdenum trioxide. The research team plans to tune the wavefront geometry of polariton nano-light by stacking and twisting molybdenum trioxide in a LEGO-like fashion. The energy flow of polariton nano-light can also be routed by geometric structuring of molybdenum trioxide, for a variety of practical applications including biochemical sensing, nano-manufacturing and optical forces. In addition, this project provides the training opportunity for undergraduate and graduate students, especially the underrepresented minorities, on scanning probe nano-optical characterization, electromagnetic simulation and van der Waals material fabrication. The outreach and summer research activities provide K-12 students and high-school teachers hand-on research experience and teaching units for their curriculum.
The primary goal of the project is to explore the propagation routing and wavefront configuration of nanoscale light-matter waves – polariton nano-light – by van der Waals twisting and structuring of molybdenum trioxide. The routing and configuration rely on the electromagnetic directionality of polariton nano-light in molybdenum trioxide: they propagate along certain direction(s) with extremely anisotropic electromagnetic field. This electromagnetic directionality suggests the wavefront configuration via electromagnetic interactions of polariton nano-light in stacked vdW structures. The research team exploits state-of-the-art optical nano-imaging and electromagnetic simulation to reveal the configured polariton nano-light with straightforward real-space images. Furthermore, the research team plans to investigate exotic optical physics that are ungoverned by conventional optics laws, when additional geometric structuring is applied to the already directional nano-light. This project is expected to complement current knowledge in van der Waals materials and polaritonic nano-optics with the understanding of twisting configuration and exotic optical physics of directional polariton nano-light, and demonstrate the prototype van der Waals structures with tailored and reconfigurable properties for on-demand nano-optical functionalities. This project is jointly funded by the Electronic and Photonics Materials Program in the Division of Materials Research and the Established Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (EPSCoR).
This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.