Flexible Near-Infrared Plasmon-Polaritons in Epitaxial Scandium Nitride Enabled by van der Waals Heteroepitaxy

Van der Waals heteroepitaxy refers to the growth of strain- and misfit-dislocation-free epitaxial films on layered substrates or vice versa. Such heteroepitaxial technique can be utilized in developing flexible near-infrared transition metal nitride plasmonic materials to broaden their photonic and bioplasmonic applications, such as antifogging, smart windows, and bioimaging. Here, we show the first conclusive experimental demonstration of the van der Waals heteroepitaxy-enabled flexible semiconducting scandium nitride (ScN) thin films exhibiting near-infrared, low-loss epsilon-near-zero, and surface plasmon-polariton resonances. Deposited on fluorophlogopite-mica substrates with molecular beam epitaxy, polaritonic ScN heterostructures mark the first semiconducting nitride to exhibit plasmon resonance at the 1100–1250 nm spectral range, inside the biological transmission window. Interestingly, optical properties of such ScN exhibit remarkable stability even after bending more than 100 times. Creating low-cost and high-quality flexible yet refractory plasmonic ScN heterostructures for the near-infrared spectral range will advance flexible optics and bioplasmonic devices for practical applications.