Surface plasmons (SPs) are surface-bound electromagnetic waves supported by metals, offering the possibility of strong spatial confinement of electromagnetic fields on the micro- and nanoscales. They suffer, however, from strong damping caused by internal absorption and radiation losses. Here we demonstrate amplification of SPs by stimulated emission, which marks a possible solution to this problem. We use an attenuated-total-reflection setup to detect stimulated emission of SPs at the interface between a silver film and an optically pumped dye solution acting as the amplifying medium. Clear evidence of stimulated emission is provided by an excellent agreement of the experimental observations with a theoretical analysis. Amplification of SPs can be considered analogous to photon amplification in a laser, thereby suggesting novel approaches in the field of nano-optics.

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The microstructure of ferroelectric hafnium oxide plays a vital role for its application, e.g., non-volatile memories. In this study, transmission Kikuchi diffraction and scanning transmission electron microscopy STEM techniques are used to compare the crystallographic phase and orientation of Si and Zr doped HfO2 thin films as well as integrated in a 22 nm fully-depleted silicon-on-insulator (FDSOI) ferroelectric field effect transistor (FeFET). Both HfO2 films showed a predominately orthorhombic phase in accordance with electrical measurements and X-ray diffraction XRD data. Furthermore, a stronger texture is found for the microstructure of the Si doped HfO2 (HSO) thin film, which is attributed to stress conditions inside the film stack during crystallization. For the HSO thin film fabricated in a metal-oxide-semiconductor (MOS) like structure, a different microstructure, with no apparent texture as well as a different fraction of orthorhombic phase is observed. The 22 nm FDSOI FeFET showed an orthorhombic phase for the HSO layer, as well as an out-of-plane texture of the [111]-axis, which is preferable for the application as non-volatile memory.

Note: This paper is part of the Special Topic on Materials and Devices Utilizing Ferroelectricity in Halfnium Oxide.

Topologically protected surface states present rich physics and promising spintronic, optoelectronic, and photonic applications that require a proper understanding of their ultrafast carrier dynamics. Here, we investigate these dynamics in topological insulators (TIs) of the bismuth and antimony chalcogenide family, where we isolate the response of Dirac fermions at the surface from the response of bulk carriers by combining photoexcitation with below-bandgap terahertz (THz) photons and TI samples with varying Fermi level, including one sample with the Fermi level located within the bandgap. We identify distinctly faster relaxation of charge carriers in the topologically protected Dirac surface states (few hundred femtoseconds), compared to bulk carriers (few picoseconds). In agreement with such fast cooling dynamics, we observe THz harmonic generation without any saturation effects for increasing incident fields, unlike graphene which exhibits strong saturation. This opens up promising avenues for increased THz nonlinear conversion efficiencies, and high-bandwidth optoelectronic and spintronic information and communication applications.

Hyperbolic phonon polaritons have recently attracted considerable attention in nanophotonics mostly due to their intrinsic strong electromagnetic field confinement, ultraslow polariton group velocities, and long lifetimes. Here we introduce tin oxide (SnO2) nanobelts as a photonic platform for the transport of surface and volume phonon polaritons in the mid- to far-infrared frequency range. This report brings a comprehensive description of the polaritonic properties of SnO2 as a nanometer-sized dielectric and also as an engineered material in the form of a waveguide. By combining accelerator-based IR-THz sources (synchrotron and free-electron laser) with s-SNOM, we employed nanoscale far-infrared hyper-spectral-imaging to uncover a Fabry–Perot cavity mechanism in SnO2 nanobelts via direct detection of phonon-polariton standing waves. Our experimental findings are accurately supported by notable convergence between theory and numerical simulations. Thus, the SnO2 is confirmed as a natural hyperbolic material with unique photonic properties essential for future applications involving subdiffractional light traffic and detection in the far-infrared range.

Multiferroic BiFeO 3 (BFO) shows several phonon modes at infrared (IR) to THz energies, which are expected to carry information on any sample property coupled to crystal lattice vibrations. While macroscopic IR studies of BFO are often limited by single-crystal size, scatteringtype scanning near-field optical microscopy (s-SNOM) allows for IR thin film spectroscopy of nanoscopic probing volumes with negligible direct substrate contribution to the optical signal. In fact, polaritons such as phonon polaritons of BFO introduce a resonant tip-sample coupling in s-SNOM, leading to both stronger signals and enhanced sensitivity to local material properties. Here, we explore the near-field response of BFO thin films at three consecutive resonances (centered around 5 THz, 13 THz, and 16 THz), by combining s-SNOM with a free-electron laser. We study the dependence of these near-field resonances on both the wavelength and tip-sample distance. Enabled by the broad spectral range of the measurement, we probe phonon modes connected to the predominant motion of either the bismuth or oxygen ions. Therefore, we propose s-SNOM at multiple near-field resonances as a versatile and very sensitive tool for the simultaneous investigation of various sample properties.

We optically investigate the local-scale ferroelectric domain structure of tetragonal, orthorhombic, and rhombohedral barium titanate (BTO) single crystals using scattering-type scanning near-field infrared (IR) optical microscopy (s-SNIM) at temperatures down to 150 K. Thanks to the precisely tunable narrow-band free-electron laser FELBE, we are able to explore the spectral fingerprints and IR resonances of these three phases and their domain orientations in the optical IR near-field. More clearly, every structural phase is analyzed with respect to its near-field resonances close to a wavelength of 17 μm when exploring the (111)-oriented BTO sample surface. Furthermore, near-field imaging at these resonances is performed, that clearly allows for the unambiguous optical identification of different domain orientations. Since our s-SNIM is based on a non-contact scanning force microscope, our s-SNIM findings are backed up by sample-topography and piezoresponse force microscopy (PFM) imaging, providing complementary information in an excellent match to the s-SNIM results.