Electrically Driven Plasmon-Polaritonic Bistability in Dirac Electron Tunneling Transistors.

Area of Science:

• Condensed Matter Physics
• Nanophotonics
• Materials Science

Background:

• Bistability, a phenomenon with two stable states, is crucial in physics and applications.
• Plasmon-polaritonic bistability has been theorized but not experimentally shown due to nonlinearity challenges.

Purpose of the Study:

• To experimentally demonstrate electrically driven plasmon-polaritonic bistability.
• To explore nonlinear optical and electronic phenomena in van der Waals heterostructures.

Main Methods:

• Fabrication of graphene/hexagonal-boron-nitride/graphene tunneling transistors with a small twist angle between graphene layers.
• Utilizing momentum-conserving resonant tunneling of Dirac electrons to achieve bistability.
• Tuning plasmonic behavior via load resistance and electrostatic gating.

Main Results:

• Experimental observation of electrically driven plasmon-polaritonic bistability.
• Co-observation of electronic and plasmon-polaritonic bistability in engineered devices.
• Demonstration of precise tunability of the bistable plasmonic behavior.

Conclusions:

• This work provides the first experimental evidence of plasmon-polaritonic bistability.
• The findings advance nanoplasmonics and offer new avenues for nonlinear phenomena in heterostructures.
• Potential applications include optical memory, sensing, and optoelectronic switching.