Abstract:
Controlling light at the nanoscale is critical in many frontiers of physical science. In this talk, I will discuss two very different systems - silver metasurfaces and two-dimensional semiconductors - that each offer unprecedented opportunities to mold light at a deep sub wavelength level. To begin, we will show that by carving nanoscale structures, or metasurfaces, into single-crystalline silver films, we can dramatically modify the optical properties of light that moves on the silver surface (1). These metasurfaces exhibit a plethora of phenomena not found in ordinary optical materials, including hyperbolic dispersion, diffraction-free propagation, and optical spin-orbit coupling. Then, we will switch materials platforms and discuss the unique optical properties of transition metal dichalcogenide (TMDs) monolayers, and show that even at a single monolayer thickness TMDs can become a highly-reflective, electronically-switchable mirror (2). Lastly, we will bring the two platforms together - silver films and TMDs - to uncover new optical resonances in the TMDs (3). We will also discuss how these areas connect to our ongoing research in networking quantum systems at the University of Chicago.
 

1. A.A. High*, R.C. Devlin*, A. Dibos, M. Polking, D.S. Wild, J. Perczel, N.P. de Leon, M.D. Lukin & H. Park, Nature 522, 192-196 (2015).
2. G. Scuri*, Y. Zhou*, A.A. High*, D.S. Wild*, C. Shu, K. De Greve, L.A. Jauregui, T. Taniguchi, K. Watanabe, P. Kim, M.D. Lukin & H. Park, Physical Review Letters 120, 037042 (2018).
3. Y. Zhou*, G. Scuri*, D.S. Wild*, A.A. High*, A. Dibos, L.A. Jauregui, C. Shu, K. De Greve, K. Pistunova, A.Y. Joe, T. Taniguchi, K. Watanabe, P. Kim, M.D. Lukin & H. Park, Nature Nanotechnology 12, 856–860 (2017).