A global trend to miniaturization and multiwavelength performance of nanophotonic devices drives research on novel phenomena, such as bound states in the continuum and Mietronics, as well as the survey for high-refractive index and strongly anisotropic materials and metasurfaces. Hexagonal boron nitride (hBN) is one of promising materials for the future nanophotonics owing to its inherent anisotropy and prospects of high-quality monocrystals growth with atomically flat surface. Here, we present highly accurate optical constants of hBN in the broad wavelength range of 250-1700 nm combining the imaging ellipsometry measurements scanning near-field optical microscopy and first-principle quantum mechanical computations. hBN’s high refractive index, up to 2.75 in ultraviolet (UV) and visible range, broadband birefringence of 0.7, and negligible optical losses make it an outstanding material for UV and visible range photonics. Based on our measurement results, we propose and design novel optical elements: handedness-preserving mirrors and subwavelength waveguides with dimensions of 40 nm operating in the visible and UV range, respectively. Remarkably, our results offer unique opportunity to bridge the size-gap between photonics and electronics.
Published in: "arXiv Material Science".