光と物質のハイブリッド粒子の動態を撮影する技術(UChicago chemists ‘film’ light-matter hybrid particles)

2026-05-01 シカゴ大学(UChicago)

シカゴ大学の化学者らは、光と物質が結合した準粒子「ポラリトン」の動きをリアルタイムで撮影することに成功した。これまで理論や間接的観測に頼っていた光―物質相互作用を、超高速分光技術によって直接可視化した点が大きな成果である。研究では、ポラリトンがエネルギーを伝達しながらどのように振る舞うかを詳細に捉え、量子現象の理解を深めた。この成果は、光を利用した新しい電子デバイスや量子技術の開発に寄与する可能性がある。今後はエネルギー変換や高速通信などへの応用が期待される。

<関連情報>

双曲型MoOCl2における長距離異方性プラズモンポラリトンの時空間可視化 Spatiotemporal visualization of long-range anisotropic plasmon polaritons in hyperbolic MoOCl2

Atreyie Ghosh,Calvin Raab,Joseph L. Spellberg,Aishani Mohan,Muneeza Munawar,Janek Rieger & Sarah B. King
Nature Communications  Published:13 March 2026
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-026-70565-2

光と物質のハイブリッド粒子の動態を撮影する技術(UChicago chemists ‘film’ light-matter hybrid particles)

Abstract

Manipulating light at the nanoscale with minimal loss remains a central challenge for nanophotonic technologies that can be tackled by using the direction-dependent polariton modes supported by anisotropic materials. Although best known for their highly confined polaritons, hyperbolic materials can also host long-range directional polaritons, whose direct observation has remained challenging as it requires experimental techniques that combine nanometer and femtosecond spatial and temporal resolution, respectively. Here, we use time-resolved photoemission electron microscopy for direct nanoscale visualization of long-range anisotropic plasmon polariton (LRAPP) dynamics on a flake of the van der Waals hyperbolic material molybdenum oxydichloride. We directly image plasmon polaritons with propagation lengths larger than 10 μm, exhibiting an approximately three times longer propagation length and intrinsically lower optical loss than short-range polaritons previously reported on the same material. By tracking the spatiotemporal evolution of LRAPPs, we determine their phase and group velocities at the nanoscale and directly observe their reflections at flake edges. These results establish molybdenum oxydichloride as a versatile platform for integrated nanophotonics, supporting both low-loss directional transport and deeply subwavelength field confinement within a single natural material in the visible spectral range.

0500化学一般
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