Observation of polaritons in Bi2Sr2CaCu2O8+x single crystals
Abstract
The Bi2Sr2CaCu2O8+x high-temperature superconductor represents a natural metamaterial, composed of metallic CuO bilayers sandwiched between ionic BiO planes. Each pair of CuO bilayers forms an atomic-scale Josephson junction. Here we employ the intrinsic Josephson effect for in situ generation and detection of electromagnetic waves in Bi2Sr2CaCu2O8+x single crystals. We observe that electromagnetic waves form polaritons with several transverse optical phonons. This indicates the presence of unscreened polar response in cuprates, which may lead to strong electronphonon interaction. Our technique can provide intense local sources of coherent, monochromatic phonon-polaritons with kW/cm2 power densities.
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