Dresden 2026 – scientific programme

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O: Fachverband Oberflächenphysik

O 96: Plasmonics and nanooptics: Fabrication, characterization and applications

O 96.11: Talk

Friday, March 13, 2026, 12:00–12:15, HSZ/0403

Tailoring hyperbolic phonon polaritons in hexagonal boron nitride with the phase-change material In₃SbTe₂ — •Lina Jäckering, Aaron Moos, Lukas Conrads, Matthias Wuttig, and Thomas Taubner — I. Institute of Physics (IA), RWTH Aachen University

Polaritons in van-der-Waals materials (vdWM)¹ promise high confinement and multiple tailoring options by resonators and launching structures which conventionally require cumbersome lithography techniques. Optical programming of phase-change materials (PCMs) offers fast and reconfigurable fabrication of these structures. As the plasmonic PCM In₃SbTe₂ (IST) can be switched between a dielectric and metallic phase, IST is promising for nanophotonics², especially for optical programming of metallic launching structures to tailor and confine polaritons in vdWM. Here, we combine the vdWM hexagonal boron nitride (hBN) with IST.³ We optically program circular resonators for hBN’s phonon polaritons into IST through the hBN flake. We investigate the polariton resonators with near-field optical microscopy. Demonstrating the reconfigurability, we decrease the resonator diameter to increase the confinement up to λ/39 and achieve a quality factor of 72. Finally, we fabricate a focusing structure for hBN’s polaritons whose focal point we reconfigure. We promote IST as a versatile platform for rapid prototyping of polariton optics in various vdWM such as α-MoO₃, β-Ga₂O₃ and MoOCl₂. [1] Basov et al. Science 354, 6309 (2025) [2] Conrads et al. Opt. Mater. Express 15, 2664 (2025). [3] Jäckering et al. Nano Letters 25, 15809 (2025).

Keywords: hBN; phonon polaritons; resonator; reconfigurable; phase-change materials