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Photothermal nanoimaging of dissipative surface polaritons

ORAL

Abstract

Controlling the functionalities of 2D material structures via strong light-matter coupling requires understanding of the dissipation and thermalization dynamics of surface polaritons. However, the intricate details of polaritonic decay processes are rooted in a plethora of physical mechanism spanning widely separated length and time scales, even down to regimes where dissipation is no longer a readily measurable quantity.
Here, we introduce photothermal force microscopy as a nanoimaging modality to visualize energy dissipation via surface plasmon polaritons (SPPs). Studying graphene on silicon dioxide, we perform real-space imaging of SPPs via photothermal force detection (AFM-IR) with contrast interpreted due to thermal substrate expansion induced by the local SPP decay. Complementary to previous studies, reporting the optical characterization of SPPs via IR-sSNOM, we will show that photothermal expansion forces facilitate the direct mechanical detection of the non-radiative SPP decay process. Our observations reveal that dissipative surface polariton modes might enable to control the spatio-temporal dynamics of thermal nanosystems.

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Presenters

  • Fabian Menges

    University of Colorado, Boulder

Authors

  • Honghua U Yang

    University of Colorado, Boulder

  • Liang-Chun Lin

    University of Colorado, Boulder

  • tao jiang

    University of Colorado, Boulder, Department of Physics, Department of Chemistry, and JILA, University of Colorado, Boulder

  • Samuel Berweger

    NIST Boulder, National Institute of Standards and Technology Boulder

  • Fabian Menges

    University of Colorado, Boulder

  • Markus B. Raschke

    University of Colorado, Boulder, Physics and Chemistry, University of Colorado, Boulder, University of Colorado Boulder, Department of Physics, Department of Chemistry, and JILA, University of Colorado - Boulder, Department of Physics, Department of Chemistry and JILA, University of Colorado, Boulder, Department of Physics, Department of Chemistry, and JILA, University of Colorado, Boulder, Physics, University of Colorado, Boulder, Physics, Chemistry, and JILA, University of Colorado, Boulder