Near-Unity Anisotropic Infrared Absorption in Monolayer Black Phosphorus With/Without Subwavelength Patterning Design

As an emerging anisotropic two-dimensional (2-D) material, few-atomic-layer black phosphorus (BP) has shown some promising potentials for infrared optoelectronics. Engineering and enhancing its light-matter interaction is significant for many advanced photonic devices. In view of this, we aim to achieve extremely high infrared absorption in monolayer BP with/without subwavelength patterning. By optimizing the polarization and angle of the incident light, the dielectric thickness, and the n -type doping concentration, respectively, infrared radiation can be sufficiently coupled to optical absorption of the monolayer BP in a multiscale photonic structure. The anisotropic infrared absorbance ratios of the unpatterned monolayer BP are enhanced up to 98.2% and 96%, respectively, in inequivalent crystal directions. Moreover, monolayer BP with a design of metasurface and optimized doping can reach near-unity anisotropic infrared absorption under a smaller incident angle. This paper provides a simple and efficient scheme to trap infrared light for developing promising optoelectronic devices based on monolayer BP and potentially other anisotropic 2-D materials.