Nanometric holograms based on a topological insulator material

Zengji Yue, Gaolei Xue, Juan Liu, Yongtian Wang, Min Gu*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

116 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Holography has extremely extensive applications in conventional optical instruments spanning optical microscopy and imaging, three-dimensional displays and metrology. To integrate holography with modern low-dimensional electronic devices, holograms need to be thinned to a nanometric scale. However, to keep a pronounced phase shift modulation, the thickness of holograms has been generally limited to the optical wavelength scale, which hinders their integration with ultrathin electronic devices. Here, we break this limit and achieve 60 nm holograms using a topological insulator material. We discover that nanometric topological insulator thin films act as an intrinsic optical resonant cavity due to the unequal refractive indices in their metallic surfaces and bulk. The resonant cavity leads to enhancement of phase shifts and thus the holographic imaging. Our work paves a way towards integrating holography with flat electronic devices for optical imaging, data storage and information security.

Original languageEnglish
Article number15354
JournalNature Communications
Volume8
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 18 May 2017

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'Nanometric holograms based on a topological insulator material'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this