Year: 2020
Type: article
Abstract: Merging concepts from the fields of ab initio materials science and nanophotonics, there is now an opportunity to engineer new photonic materials whose optical, transport, and scattering properties are tailored to attain thermodynamic and quantum limits. Here we present first-principles calculations predicting that Argentene, a single-crystalline hexagonal close-packed monolayer of Ag, can dramatically surpass the optical properties and electrical conductivity of conventional plasmonic materials. In the low-frequency limit, we show that the scattering rate and resistivity reduce by a factor of 3 compared to the bulk three-dimensional metal. Most importantly, the low scattering rate extends to optical frequencies in sharp contrast to, e.g., graphene, whose scattering rate increase drastically in the near-infrared range due to optical-phonon scattering. Combined with an intrinsically high carrier density, this facilitates highly confined surface plasmons extending to visible frequencies. We evaluate Argentene across three distinct figures of merit, in each outperforming the state-of-the-art, making it a valuable addition to the two-dimensional heterostructure toolkit for quantum optoelectronics.
Source: Physical Review Materials
Authors: Ravishankar Sundararaman, Thomas Christensen, Yuan Ping, Nicholas Rivera, John D. Joannopoulos, Marin Soljačić, Prineha Narang
Language: English
Subfield: Atomic and Molecular Physics, and Optics
Field: Physics and Astronomy
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: bronze
Funders: U.S. Department of Energy, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Harvard University, Natur og Univers, Det Frie Forskningsråd, National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center, Imperial College London, Danmarks Frie Forskningsfond, Office of Science, Solid-State Solar Thermal Energy Conversion, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Army Research Office
Awards: G122673668, G1286236842, G1314494723, G1414775356, G1503532029, G1677143136, G1816284028, G222768804, G254211665, G29355420, G3083819904, G365575497, G419881185, G42916606, G4501827968, G498139845, G5076365615, G5197807838, G5296923526, NEW: SOLID-STATE SOLAR-THERMAL ENERGY CONVERSION CENTER (S3TEC CENTER) -- EFRC; PI - GANG CHEN, G6652958823, NEW: SOLID-STATE SOLAR-THERMAL ENERGY CONVERSION CENTER (S3TEC CENTER) -- EFRC; PI - GANG CHEN, G7452299184, G805243471, G805375031, G969889393
OpenAlex ID: W2806990489