Dispersion of Phonon Surface Polaritons in ZnGeP2: Anisotropy and Temperature Impacts

Nanoscale Res Lett. 2016 Dec;11(1):76. doi: 10.1186/s11671-016-1270-7. Epub 2016 Feb 9.

Abstract

Zinc germanium diphosphide (ZnGeP2) is an attractive and promising functional material for different devices of the nano- and optoelectronics. In this paper, dispersion of phonon surface polaritons (PSPs) in ZnGeP2 has been studied in the 200-500-cm(-1) spectral range at 4 and 300 K. Dispersion of "real" and "virtual" PSPs were calculated for C-axis being normal and parallel to the surface. Anisotropy in ZnGeP2 leads to the different numbers of PSP dispersion branches for different orientations of the sample. The temperature-dependent phonon contributions in the dielectric permittivity shift dispersion of the surface polaritons in ZnGeP2 to the higher wavenumbers at 4 K. We have shown that experimental dispersion of PSP is in agreement with theory.

Keywords: Anisotropy; Low temperature; Phonon; Single crystal; Surface polariton.