Recently, the group members of Professor Jianlin Zhao at School of Physical Science and Technology in Northwestern Polytechnical University (NPU) have achieved a breakthrough in the field of micro/nano-optics. They firstly reported a visible-range magnetic resonance in topological insulator micro/nano-structures, and applied it to realize the photoluminescence (PL) enhancement of MoS2. The results will open a new door for artificial electromagnetic materials and optoelectronic devices.

Magnetic resonances in artificial electromagnetic materials can overcome the drawback of weak magnetic response in natural materials, which contribute to the achievement of negative refractive index, superlens, invisible cloaking, and so on. The traditional artificial electromagnetic materials generally consist of metallic split rings, but their magnetic resonances are not easy to reach high frequencies, especially visible range. To solve this problem, the researchers proposed an innovative method to realize magnetic resonances by using topological insulators. They fabricated Sb2Te3 nanogroove grating structures with focused ion beam milling, measured the visible-range magnetic resonance with a broad resonant spectrum, and observed PL reinforcement of MoS2 by employing the induced strong electric field. These results will pave a new avenue toward developing new artificial electromagnetic materials and micro/nano-scale optoelectronic devices.

The above results have been published in the distinguished journal Light: Science & Applications with the title Magnetic plasmon resonances in nanostructured topological insulators for strongly enhanced light-MoS2 interactions. The first author is the group member Associate Professor Hua Lu, and the corresponding authors are Professor Jianlin Zhao, Associate Professor Hua Lu, and Research Professor Yinan Zhang at University of Shanghai for Science and Technology.

Light: Science & Applications, co-published by Springer Nature (previous Nature Publishing Group) and Changchun Institute of Optics, Fine Mechanics and Physics, has selected as a leading journal of “the China Science and Technology Journal Excellence Action Plan”.

As a young scholar in the NPU subject of Optical Engineering, Associate Professor Hua Lu is currently devoted to the research work in the field of micro/nano-optics with the funding support of National Natural Science Foundation of China. He has obtained some research achievements on plasmonic resonant control, devices, and applications. This work is one of his typical achievements.

Writer: Lu Hua, Reviewer: Mao Dong

Source: School of Physical Science and Technology