Science Daily June 23, 2023
Photonic bound states in the continuum (BICs) provide a platform for strong light-matter coupling with transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDCs) but have so far mostly been implemented as traditional all-dielectric metasurfaces with adjacent TMDC layers, incurring limitations related to strain, mode overlap and material integration. Researchers in Germany demonstrated intrinsic strong coupling in BIC-driven metasurfaces composed of nanostructured bulk tungsten disulfide (WS2) and exhibiting resonances with sharp, tailored linewidths and selective enhancement of light-matter interactions. Tuning of the BIC resonances across the exciton resonance in bulk WS2 was achieved by varying the metasurface unit cells, enabling strong coupling with an anticrossing pattern and a Rabi splitting. The coupling strength itself could be controlled and was shown to be independent of material-intrinsic losses. According to the researchers the self-hybridized metasurface platform could be readily incorporate other TMDCs or excitonic materials to deliver fundamental insights and practical device concepts for polaritonic applications… read more. Open Access TECHNICAL ARTICLEÂ
Strong coupling in WS2 BIC metasurfaces. Credit: Nature Materials (2023)