https://doi.org/10.1140/epjb/s10051-026-01144-z
Research - Condensed Matter
Surface phononic polariton dispersion in vdW crystal forbidden band: a case of component-inverted sandwich nanolayered structures
1
School of Intelligent Manufacturing, Guangzhou Polytechnic University, 511483, Guangzhou, People’s Republic of China
2
Dongguan Institute of Opto-Electronics, Peking University, 523429, Dongguan, People’s Republic of China
3
Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Nanophotonic Functional, Materials and Devices, South China Normal University, 510006, Guangzhou, People’s Republic of China
4
State Key Laboratory for Artificial Microstructure and Mesoscopic Physics, School of Physics, Peking University, 100871, Beijing, People’s Republic of China
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Received:
10
November
2025
Accepted:
8
February
2026
Published online:
8
March
2026
Abstract
Van der Waals (vdW) crystals, endowed with unique layered structure and anisotropic dielectric properties, support high-performance phonon polaritons (PhPs), attracting significant attention in the field of nano-optoelectronics. However, PhP frequency bands are strongly dependent on the frequencies of the characteristic optical phonons of the selected materials. Moreover, for a given vdW material, there exist forbidden bands for PhPs, which greatly limits application flexibility. Here, we propose the concept of phonon heterostructures to create a surface phonon polaritons (SPhPs) frequency band within the forbidden gap of vdW crystals, summarizing the existence conditions as well as the frequency and wavenumber ranges of PhPs. Using vdW hexagonal BN (h-BN) crystal as an example, we select three suitable semiconductors, namely cubic BN (c-BN), cubic SiC (c-SiC), and wurtzite AlN (w-AlN), to construct six component-inverted sandwich structures. The frequency bands, dispersion spectra, and group velocity characteristics of SPhPs in these structures are numerically investigated. Results demonstrate that all sandwich structures successfully open an SPhP frequency band within the forbidden gap of h-BN crystals. Furthermore, reversing the materials composing the heterostructures significantly modulates the dispersion spectra and group velocities of SPhPs. These findings provide a new strategy to create PhP bands within the forbidden gaps of vdW crystals and offer novel insights for tailoring their properties.
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© The Author(s), under exclusive licence to EDP Sciences, SIF and Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature 2026
Springer Nature or its licensor (e.g. a society or other partner) holds exclusive rights to this article under a publishing agreement with the author(s) or other rightsholder(s); author self-archiving of the accepted manuscript version of this article is solely governed by the terms of such publishing agreement and applicable law.
