Plasmons in the Kagome metal CsV₃Sb₅.

Abstract

Plasmon polaritons, or plasmons, are coupled oscillations of electrons and electromagnetic fields that can confine the latter into deeply subwavelength scales, enabling novel polaritonic devices. While plasmons have been extensively studied in normal metals or semimetals, they remain largely unexplored in correlated materials. In this paper, we report infrared (IR) nano-imaging of thin flakes of CsV₃Sb₅, a prototypical layered Kagome metal. We observe propagating plasmon waves in real-space with wavelengths tunable by the flake thickness. From their frequency-momentum dispersion, we infer the out-of-plane dielectric function <math xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML"> <msub><mrow><mi>ϵ</mi></mrow> <mrow><mi>c</mi></mrow> </msub> </math> that is generally difficult to obtain in conventional far-field optics, and elucidate signatures of electronic correlations when compared to density functional theory (DFT). We propose correlation effects might have switched the real part of <math xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML"> <msub><mrow><mi>ϵ</mi></mrow> <mrow><mi>c</mi></mrow> </msub> </math> from negative to positive values over a wide range of middle-IR frequencies, transforming the surface plasmons into hyperbolic bulk plasmons, and have dramatically suppressed their dissipation.