On-chip phonon-enhanced IR near-field detection of molecular vibrations

Andrei Bylinkin, Sebastián Castilla, Tetiana M. Slipchenko, Kateryna Domina, Francesco Calavalle, Varun-Varma Pusapati, Marta Autore, Fèlix Casanova, Luis E. Hueso, Luis Martín-Moreno, Alexey Y. Nikitin, Frank H. L. Koppens and Rainer Hillenbrand ()
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Andrei Bylinkin: CIC nanoGUNE BRTA
Sebastián Castilla: The Barcelona Institute of Science and Technology
Tetiana M. Slipchenko: CSIC-Universidad de Zaragoza
Kateryna Domina: Donostia International Physics Center (DIPC) and EHU/UPV
Francesco Calavalle: CIC nanoGUNE BRTA
Varun-Varma Pusapati: The Barcelona Institute of Science and Technology
Marta Autore: CIC nanoGUNE BRTA
Fèlix Casanova: CIC nanoGUNE BRTA
Luis E. Hueso: CIC nanoGUNE BRTA
Luis Martín-Moreno: CSIC-Universidad de Zaragoza
Alexey Y. Nikitin: Donostia International Physics Center (DIPC)
Frank H. L. Koppens: The Barcelona Institute of Science and Technology
Rainer Hillenbrand: Basque Foundation for Science

Nature Communications, 2024, vol. 15, issue 1, 1-10

Abstract: Abstract Phonon polaritons – quasiparticles formed by strong coupling of infrared (IR) light with lattice vibrations in polar materials – can be utilized for surface-enhanced infrared absorption (SEIRA) spectroscopy and even for vibrational strong coupling with nanoscale amounts of molecules. Here, we introduce and demonstrate a compact on-chip phononic SEIRA spectroscopy platform, which is based on an h-BN/graphene/h-BN heterostructure on top of a metal split-gate creating a p-n junction in graphene. The metal split-gate concentrates the incident light and launches hyperbolic phonon polaritons (HPhPs) in the heterostructure, which serves simultaneously as SEIRA substrate and room-temperature infrared detector. When thin organic layers are deposited directly on top of the heterostructure, we observe a photocurrent encoding the layer’s molecular vibrational fingerprint, which is strongly enhanced compared to that observed in standard far-field absorption spectroscopy. A detailed theoretical analysis supports our results, further predicting an additional sensitivity enhancement as the molecular layers approach deep subwavelength scales. Future on-chip integration of infrared light sources such as quantum cascade lasers or even electrical generation of the HPhPs could lead to fully on-chip phononic SEIRA sensors for molecular and gas sensing.

Date: 2024
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DOI: 10.1038/s41467-024-53182-9

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