Nanophotonics of mid-infrared plasmon-polaritons at interfaces between metals and two-dimensional crystals

The optical response of metal/dielectric interfaces is largely influenced by surface plasmon-polariton (SPP) modes. In the mid-infrared (IR) range, SPPs can probe the inner physicochemical properties of metal/dielectric systems, including interfaces with mid-IR polaritonic 2D crystals. Using advanced nanoscopy techniques, we characterize mid-IR SPP modes at air/gold and hexagonal boron nitride (hBN) 2D crystal/gold interfaces via synchrotron infrared nanospectroscopy (SINS) and scattering-scanning near-field optical microscopy (s-SNOM) imaging. SPPs in these systems show micrometer-sized wavelengths and propagation lengths over 20 micrometers at room temperature. In hBN/Au, both SPPs and hyperbolic phonon polaritons (HPhPs) coexist, creating SPP-HPhP wave superposition. The experimental momentum and damping of the SPP waves are determined from the s-SNOM imaging and the SINS spatio-spectral linescan. Thereby, we retrieve the experimental frequency-momentum dispersion relation, presenting excellent agreement with theory. Furthermore, we characterize an anti-crossing of the SPP dispersion near the in-plane transverse optical phonon frequency of hBN, indicating that SPP modes and phonon form a coupled system interacting in the strong coupling regime. Such an interaction of SPPs with phonons can be further explored to enhance the sensibility of mid-IR nanospectroscopy techniques.