Plasmons in phosphorene nanoribbons

Abstract: Phosphorene has emerged as an atomically-thin platform for optoelectronics and nanophotonics due to its excellent nonlinear optical properties and the possibility of actively tuning light-matter interactions through electrical doping. While phosphorene is a two-dimensional semiconductor, plasmon resonances characterized by pronounced anisotropy and strong optical confinement are anticipated to emerge in highly-doped samples. Here we show that the localized plasmons supported by phosphorene nanoribbons (PNRs) exhibit high tunability in relation to both edge termination and doping charge polarity, and can trigger an intense nonlinear optical response at moderate doping levels. Our explorations are based on a second-principles theoretical framework, employing maximally localized Wannier functions constructed from ab-inito electronic structure calculations, which we introduce here to describe the linear and nonlinear optical response of PNRs on mesoscopic length scales. Atomistic simulations reveal the high tunability of plasmons in doped PNRs at near-infrared frequencies, which can facilitate synergy between electronic band structure and plasmonic field confinement in doped PNRs to drive efficient high-harmonic generation. Our findings establish phosphorene nanoribbons as a versatile atomically-thin material candidate for nonlinear plasmonics.