Ricerc@Sapienza

Phonon polaritons, hybrid light-matter quasiparticles resulting from strong coupling of the electromagnetic field with the lattice vibrations of polar crystals are a promising platform for mid-infrared photonics, to develop applications such as coherent directional sources of IR light, control of thermal radiation, chemical and biological IR sensors. Furthermore, the hybridisation of phonon polaritons with longitudinal phonons represent an important step toward the development of phonon polariton-based electrically pumped mid-infrared emitters.
This Project is targeted at both theoretical and experimental investigation of polar metamaterials for tuning and hybridization of phonon polaritons for infrared (IR) radiation manipulation. The research team is composed by 22 researchers and professors from Sapienza University with synergic background in physics, chemistry, mathematics and medicine.
We aim to explore emerging 2D polar materials and metamaterials to focus on new phenomena of strong coupling between longitudinal and transverse surface phonon polariton (SPhPs) from systems such as anisotropically porous media and self-assembling materials. To this aim, we plan to acquire an innovative, high resolution, FT-IR spectrometer system with a variable external sample chamber for customized experiments allowing measurements of emissivity spectra with variable angle and polarization state, detection of surface waves propagation at an interface with a dielectric prism (using both Otto scheme and ATR configuration), mapping the reflectance in the kx-ky space, as well as investigating the effect of temperature on polariton resonances. Finally, the innovative technology of the required equipment system will provide the highest flexibility for sophisticated experimental set-ups in polaritonics, and will support the ongoing research on 2D polar materials, metamaterials and their response in the IR, in order to exploit their peculiar spectral features for sensing applications.