Graphene-based moiré superlattices have recently emerged as a unique class of tuneable solid-state systems that exhibit significant optoelectronic activity. Local probing at length scales of the ...superlattice should provide deeper insight into the microscopic mechanisms of photoresponse and the exact role of the moiré lattice. Here, we employ a nanoscale probe to study photoresponse within a single moiré unit cell of minimally twisted bilayer graphene. Our measurements reveal a spatially rich photoresponse, whose sign and magnitude are governed by the fine structure of the moiré lattice and its orientation with respect to measurement contacts. This results in a strong directional effect and a striking spatial dependence of the gate-voltage response within the moiré domains. The spatial profile and carrier-density dependence of the measured photocurrent point towards a photo-thermoelectric induced response that is further corroborated by good agreement with numerical simulations. Our work shows sub-diffraction photocurrent spectroscopy is an exceptional tool for uncovering the optoelectronic properties of moiré superlattices.
Artificial gauge fields enable uncharged particles to behave as if affected by external fields. Generated by geometry or modulation, artificial gauge fields are instrumental in realizing topological ...physics in photonics, cold atoms and acoustics. Here, we experimentally demonstrate waveguiding by artificial gauge fields. We construct artificial gauge fields by using waveguide arrays with non-trivial trajectories. Tilting the arrays results in gauge fields that are different in the core and cladding, shifting their dispersion curves, thereby confining the light to the core. In a more advanced setting, we demonstrate waveguiding in a medium with the same gauge and dispersion everywhere, where the only difference between the core and the cladding is a phase shift in the dynamics of the gauge fields, which facilitates waveguiding via bound states in the continuum. Waveguiding and bound states in the continuum via artificial gauge fields relate to a plethora of systems, ranging from photonics and microwaves to cold atoms and acoustics.Optical guiding by a synthetic gauge field is experimentally demonstrated through an array of evanescently coupled identical waveguides, opening the door to applications of artificial gauge fields in optical, microwave and acoustic systems and in cold atoms.
Deep subwavelength features are expected to have minimal impact on wave transport. Here we show that in contrast to this common understanding, disorder can have a dramatic effect in a one-dimensional ...disordered optical system with spatial features a thousand times smaller than the wavelength. We examine a unique regime of Anderson localization where the localization length is shown to scale linearly with the wavelength instead of diverging, because of the role of evanescent waves. In addition, we demonstrate an unusual order of magnitude enhancement of transmission induced due to localization. These results are described for electromagnetic waves, but are directly relevant to other wave systems such as electrons in multi-quantum-well structures.
The single-particle and many-body properties of twisted bilayer graphene (TBG) can be dramatically different from those of a single graphene layer, particularly when the two layers are rotated ...relative to each other by a small angle (θ ≈ 1°), owing to the moiré potential induced by the twist. Here we probe the collective excitations of TBG with a spatial resolution of 20 nm, by applying mid-infrared near-field optical microscopy. We find a propagating plasmon mode in charge-neutral TBG for θ = 1.1−1.7°, which is different from the intraband plasmon in single-layer graphene. We interpret it as an interband plasmon associated with the optical transitions between minibands originating from the moiré superlattice. The details of the plasmon dispersion are directly related to the motion of electrons in the moiré superlattice and offer an insight into the physical properties of TBG, such as band nesting between the flat band and remote band, local interlayer coupling, and losses. We find a strongly reduced interlayer coupling in the regions with AA stacking, pointing at screening due to electron–electron interactions. Optical nano-imaging of TBG allows the spatial probing of interaction effects at the nanoscale and potentially elucidates the contribution of collective excitations to many-body ground states.Moiré potentials substantially alter the electronic properties of twisted bilayer graphene at a magic twist angle. A propagating plasmon mode, which can be observed with optical nano-imaging, is associated with transitions between the moiré minibands.
We find that waves propagating in a 1D medium that is homogeneous in its linear properties but spatially disordered in its nonlinear coefficients undergo diffusive transport, instead of being ...Anderson localized as always occurs for linear disordered media. Specifically, electromagnetic waves in a multilayer structure with random nonlinear coefficients exhibit diffusion with features fundamentally different from the traditional diffusion in linear noninteracting systems. This unique transport, which stems from the nonlinear interaction between the waves and the disordered medium, displays anomalous statistical behavior where the fields in multiple different realizations converge to the same intensity value as they penetrate deeper into the medium.
We show that the well-known Čerenkov effect contains new phenomena arising from the quantum nature of charged particles. The Čerenkov transition amplitudes allow coupling between the charged particle ...and the emitted photon through their orbital angular momentum and spin, by scattering into preferred angles and polarizations. Importantly, the spectral response reveals a discontinuity immediately below a frequency cutoff that can occur in the optical region. Near this cutoff, the intensity of the conventional Čerenkov radiation (ČR) is very small but still finite, while our quantum calculation predicts exactly zero intensity above the cutoff. Below that cutoff, with proper shaping of electron beams (ebeams), we predict that the traditional ČR angle splits into two distinctive cones of photonic shockwaves. One of the shockwaves can move along a backward cone, otherwise considered impossible for conventional ČR in ordinary matter. Our findings are observable for ebeams with realistic parameters, offering new applications including novel quantum optics sources, and opening a new realm for Čerenkov detectors involving the spin and orbital angular momentum of charged particles.
Tunable sources of X-ray radiation are widely used for imaging and spectroscopy in fundamental science, medicine and industry. The growing demand for highly tunable, high-brightness laboratory-scale ...X-ray sources motivates research into new fundamental mechanisms of X-ray generation. Here, we demonstrate the ability of van der Waals materials to serve as a platform for tunable X-ray generation when irradiated by moderately relativistic electrons available, for example, from a transmission electron microscope. The radiation spectrum can be precisely controlled by tuning the acceleration voltage of the incident electrons, as well as by our proposed approach: adjusting the lattice structure of the van der Waals material. We present experimental results for both methods, observing the energy tunability of X-ray radiation from the van der Waals materials WSe2, CrPS4, MnPS3, FePS3, CoPS3 and NiPS3. Our findings demonstrate the concept of material design at the atomic level, using van der Waals heterostructures and other atomic superlattices, for exploring novel phenomena of X-ray physics.Tunable X-ray generation, from ultrathin van der Waals materials impacted by relativistic electrons, is demonstrated.
Abstract
Nanofabrication research pursues the miniaturization of patterned feature size. In the current state of the art, micron scale areas can be patterned with features down to ~30 nm pitch using ...electron beam lithography. Here, we demonstrate a nanofabrication technique which allows patterning periodic structures with a pitch down to 16 nm. It is based on focused ion beam milling of suspended membranes, with minimal proximity effects typical to standard electron beam lithography. The membranes are then transferred and used as hard etching masks. We benchmark our technique by electrostatically inducing a superlattice potential in graphene and observe bandstructure modification in electronic transport. Our technique opens the path towards the realization of very short period superlattices in 2D materials, but with the ability to control lattice symmetries and strength. This can pave the way for a versatile solid-state quantum simulator platform and the study of correlated electron phases.
Anderson localization is an interference effect crucial to the understanding of waves in disordered media. However, localization is expected to become negligible when the features of the disordered ...structure are much smaller than the wavelength. Here we experimentally demonstrate the localization of light in a disordered dielectric multilayer with an average layer thickness of 15 nanometers, deep into the subwavelength regime. We observe strong disorder-induced reflections that show that the interplay of localization and evanescence can lead to a substantial decrease in transmission, or the opposite feature of enhanced transmission. This deep-subwavelength Anderson localization exhibits extreme sensitivity: Varying the thickness of a single layer by 2 nanometers changes the reflection appreciably. This sensitivity, approaching the atomic scale, holds the promise of extreme subwavelength sensing.
Photonic crystals and metamaterials are two overarching paradigms for manipulating light. By combining these approaches, hypercrystals can be created, which are hyperbolic dispersion metamaterials ...that undergo periodic modulation and mix photonic-crystal-like aspects with hyperbolic dispersion physics. Despite several attempts, there has been limited experimental realization of hypercrystals due to technical and design constraints. In this work, hypercrystals with nanoscale lattice constants ranging from 25 to 160 nm were created. The Bloch modes of these crystals were then measured directly using scattering near-field microscopy. The dispersion of the Bloch modes was extracted from the frequency dependence of the Bloch modes, revealing a clear switch from positive to negative group velocity. Furthermore, spectral features specific to hypercrystals were observed in the form of sharp density of states peaks, which are a result of intermodal coupling and should not appear in ordinary polaritonic crystals with an equivalent geometry. These findings are in agreement with theoretical predictions that even simple lattices can exhibit a rich hypercrystal bandstructure. This work is of both fundamental and practical interest, providing insight into nanoscale light-matter interactions and the potential to manipulate the optical density of states.
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