Exciton-Enabled Meta-Optics in Two-Dimensional Transition Metal Dichalcogenides

Abstract

Optical wavefront engineering has been rapidly developing in fundamentals from phase accumulation in the optical path to the electromagnetic resonances of confined nanomodes in optical metasurfaces. However, the amplitude modulation of light has limited approaches that usually originate from the ohmic loss and absorptive dissipation of materials. Here, an atomically thin photon-sieve platform made of MoS₂ multilayers is demonstrated for high-quality optical nanodevices, assisted fundamentally by strong excitonic resonances at the band-nesting region of MoS₂. The atomic thin MoS₂ significantly facilitates high transmission of the sieved photons and high-fidelity nanofabrication. A proof-of-concept two-dimensional (2D) nanosieve hologram exhibits 10-fold enhanced efficiency compared with its non-2D counterparts. Furthermore, a supercritical 2D lens with its focal spot breaking diffraction limit is developed to exhibit experimentally far-field label-free aberrationless imaging with a resolution of ∼0.44λ at λ = 450 nm in air. This transition-metal-dichalcogenide (TMDC) photonic platform opens new opportunities toward future 2D meta-optics and nanophotonics.

Keywords: exciton; hologram; meta-optics; photonsieve; subdiffraction limit imaging; transition-metal dichalcogenides.