Anisotropic absorber and tunable source of MIR radiation based on a black phosphorus-SiC metasurface

Abstract

We propose a black phosphorus-silicon carbide (BP-SiC) metasurface with in-plane structural symmetry that can act as both a nearly perfect anisotropic absorber and tunable polarized source of mid-infrared (MIR) radiation. The metasurface is a periodic array of square SiC patches integrated with a BP flake at the top and separated from a bottom reflector by a BaF2 spacer. We first use analytical calculations and numerical simulations to study the hybridization of the anisotropic plasmons of BP with isotropic phonons of SiC. We also analyze the in-plane characteristics of the resulting hybrid modes of the BP/SiC heterostructure and the BP-SiC metasurface. It is then demonstrated that the proposed metasurface can serve as a nearly perfect anisotropic absorber of MIR radiation with highly selective and omnidirectional features. It is also shown that the metasurface can be used as a polarized MIR source with tunable temperature, which is determined by the thermal equilibrium between the matter and radiation. The suggested design holds promise for artificial coatings that can tune the blackbody thermal signatures, MIR sensing, and highly directional in-plane transportation of the MIR energy.