Surface and volume phonon polaritons in a uniaxial hyperbolic material: optic axis parallel versus perpendicular to the surface

Uniaxial hyperbolic materials enable excitation of phonon polaritons with utrahigh wavevectors that have been shown to be promising for many optical and thermal radiative applications and thus have attracted much attention recently. However, the characteristics of surface and volume phonon polaritons excited with uniaxial hyperbolic materials that exhibit in-plane anisotropy or in-plane isotropy have not been discussed thoroughly and some issues have so far remained elusive. In this paper, we conducted a comprehensive investigation on surface and volume phonon polaritons in a bulk or a thin slab of hexagonal boron nitride (hBN). We clarified the excitation, characteristics and topology of surface and volume phonon polaritons in such a uniaxial hyperbolic material. In particular, we showed that hyperbolic surface phonon polaritons (HSPhPs) can exist in the Type I hyperbolic band of hBN with confined wavevectors when the optic axis (OA) is parallel to the surface. For a thin hBN slab, we revealed a split of HSPhPs and a smooth transition between HSPhPs and HVPhPs in the Type II hyperbolic band. Furthermore, we also identified non-Dyakonov surface phonon polaritons excited without evanescent ordinary waves. These findings may extend the understanding of phonon polaritons in hyperbolic materials and offer new theoretical guidance for the design of infrared optical devices with hyperbolic materials.