Anisotropic Plasmonic Phenomena in Two-Dimensional Materials
Summary
Anisotropic plasmonic phenomena in two-dimensional materials have opened new avenues in nanophotonics by exploiting directional dependence of electronic response. Materials such as black phosphorus and borophene display markedly different plasmon dispersion and confinement along orthogonal axes, linked to their in-plane anisotropy in conductivity and effective mass. These anisotropic plasmons, whether propagating surface plasmon polaritons or localized resonances, can be tuned via electrostatic gating, geometric patterning or hybridisation with other two-dimensional layers. Directional control over resonance frequency, field enhancement and polarisation enables applications in tunable absorbers, polarisation-selective photodetectors and highly sensitive sensors. Ongoing research into loss mechanisms, coupling dynamics and angular dispersion aims to integrate these anisotropic modes into compact optoelectronic and sensing devices for telecommunications, biomedical diagnostics and environmental monitoring.
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Anisotropic Plasmonic Phenomena in Two-Dimensional Materials publication trend
The graph below shows the total number of articles in anisotropic plasmonic phenomena in two-dimensional materials across all publications each year (not limited to Nature Index journals).
Technical terms
Surface plasmon polariton (SPP): A propagating electromagnetic mode bound to an interface between a conductor and a dielectric, arising from coupling between photons and charge oscillations.
Localized surface plasmon resonance (LSPR): A non-propagating plasmon mode confined to nanoscale structures, producing strong field enhancement at specific frequencies.
In-plane anisotropy: Direction-dependent variation of electronic or optical properties within the two-dimensional plane of a material.
Fermi level: The highest occupied electronic energy level at absolute zero, which can be shifted by doping or gating to tune plasmon resonances.
Dispersion relation: The functional dependence of plasmon frequency on its wavevector, governing propagation and confinement characteristics.
References
- Anisotropic localized surface plasmons in borophene.. Optics Express (2020).
- Infrared Plasmonic Sensing with Anisotropic Two-Dimensional Material Borophene. Nanomaterials (2021).
- Strong coherent coupling between graphene surface plasmons and anisotropic black phosphorus localized surface plasmons.. Optics Express (2018).
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