Polarization-independent near-infrared superabsorption in transition metal dichalcogenide Huygens metasurfaces by degenerate critical coupling

Abstract

Strong near-infrared absorption of light in semiconducting transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDs) is essential for improving the photocarrier extraction efficiency in optoelectronic devices. Here, we numerically demonstrate that an original TMD Huygens metasurface is specifically designed to overcome the 50% absorptance limit of a subwavelength thin film. The unique metasurface comprising a TMD nanodisk array shows evidence of characteristic Mie resonances including electric and magnetic dipoles. By carefully optimizing the aspect ratio of nanodisks, the extraordinary spectral overlapping of orthogonal electric and magnetic dipole resonances is successfully realized and, thus, enables the super-high absorptance up to 87% in a subwavelength-thin ($\ensuremath{\approx}0.19{\ensuremath{\lambda}}_{0}$) semiconductor structure by degenerate critical coupling at the wavelength of ${\ensuremath{\lambda}}_{0}=903\phantom{\rule{0.16em}{0ex}}\mathrm{nm}$. All numerical results are confirmed by the temporal coupled-mode theory and again via the multipole decomposition method. Importantly, the near-unity absorptance in this TMD Huygens metasurface by degenerate critical coupling not only is tailored throughout the entire near-infrared region but also is both polarization independent and angle insensitive. The absorptance maintaining >80% is observed with the incident angle up to \ifmmode\pm\else\textpm\fi{}10 \ifmmode^\circ\else\textdegree\fi{} at least. Our findings are not only of fundamental interest but could also offer a platform for TMD-based high-speed photodetecting, energy harvesting, and thermal emission.