Ultrahigh-Quality Infrared Polaritonic Resonators Based on Bottom-Up-Synthesized van der Waals Nanoribbons

van der Waals nanomaterials supporting phonon polariton quasiparticles possess extraordinary light confinement capabilities, making them ideal systems for molecular sensing, thermal emission, and subwavelength imaging applications, but they require defect-free crystallinity and nanostructured form factors to fully showcase these capabilities. We introduce bottom-up-synthesized alpha-MoO3 structures as nanoscale phonon polaritonic systems that feature tailorable morphologies and crystal qualities consistent with bulk single crystals. alpha-MoO3 nanoribbons serve as low-loss hyperbolic Fabry-Perot nanoresonators, and we experimentally map hyperbolic resonances over four Reststrahlen bands spanning the far- and mid-infrared spectral range, including resonance modes beyond the 10th order. The measured quality factors are the highest from phonon polaritonic van der Waals structures to date. We anticipate that bottom-up-synthesized polaritonic van der Waals nanostructures will serve as an enabling high-performance and low-loss platform for infrared optical and optoelectronic applications.

Automated summary

This study introduces bottom-up-synthesized alpha-MoO3 structures as nanoscale phonon polaritonic systems that feature tailorable morphologies and crystal qualities consistent with bulk single crystals. Alpha-MoO3 nanoribbons serve as low-loss hyperbolic Fabry-Perot nanoresonators, showcasing high-performance and low-loss capabilities for infrared optical and optoelectronic applications.