Nonreciprocal and Topological Plasmonics

Abstract

Metals, semiconductors, metamaterials, and various two-dimensional materials with plasmonic dispersion exhibit numerous exotic physical effects in the presence of an external bias, for example an external static magnetic field or electric current. These physical phenomena range from Faraday rotation of light propagating in the bulk to strong confinement and directionality of guided modes on the surface and are a consequence of the breaking of Lorentz reciprocity in these systems. The recent introduction of relevant concepts of topological physics, translated from condensed-matter systems to photonics, has not only given a new perspective on some of these topics by relating certain bulk properties of plasmonic media to the surface phenomena, but has also led to the discovery of new regimes of truly unidirectional, backscattering-immune, surface-wave propagation. In this article, we briefly review the concepts of nonreciprocity and topology and describe their manifestation in plasmonic materials. Furthermore, we use these concepts to classify and discuss the different classes of guided surface modes existing on the interfaces of various plasmonic systems.

Document Details

Document Type
Pub Defense Publication
Publication Date
Apr 20, 2021
Source ID
10.3390/photonics8040133

Entities

People

  • Francesco Monticone
  • Kunal Shastri
  • Mohamed Ismail Abdelrahman

Organizations

  • Air Force Office of Scientific Research
  • National Science Foundation

Tags

Fields of Study

  • Physics

Readers

  • Microwave Engineering.
  • Quantum Dot Semiconductor Device Photonics and Graphene Optoelectronic Materials and THz Physics.
  • Systems Analysis and Design

Technology Areas

  • Microelectronics
  • Microelectronics - Graphene