Plasmonic Metasurfaces Power 2D Luminescent Sheets

Scientists have created a new metasurface that dramatically enhances light emission in ultra-thin 2D materials. This technology addresses key challenges in flexible, low-power display and photonic technologies.

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A joint research project between South Korea’s Pohang University of Science and Russia’s ITMO University has developed a new platform using van der Waals materials. These substances are just a few atoms thick and have exceptional electronic and optical properties.

The work, published in Light: Science & Applications, offers a way to overcome two long-standing limitations in plasmonic antenna–vdWM hybrid systems: emission quenching and highly localized enhancement that’s difficult to scale.

Van der Waals materials (vdWMs) have attracted significant interest from both academic and industrial sectors due to their atomic-scale thickness, mechanical flexibility, and enhanced electrical and optoelectronic properties compared to traditional silicon-based materials.

As a result, major semiconductor companies like TSMC and Intel are making substantial investments in research and development to integrate 2D semiconductors into next-generation devices.

Various issues have impeded the practical application of vdWMs in optoelectronic devices, particularly light-emitting devices. These problems include low quantum yield and ineffective large-area integration.

Current methods using metallic nanoantennas encounter two significant limitations: considerable non-radiative losses at the metal-semiconductor interface, and the enhancement is generally confined to regions of around 100 nm², which are unevenly distributed across the 2D surface.

To address this, the team created a metasurface made of hollow slot antennas, based on Babinet’s and Rayleigh’s anomaly. This structure enables both an optimized radiative decay rate and non-local photo-excitation in MoSe₂ monolayers.

The researchers used the slot's surface lattice resonance (SLR), which enhanced the metasurface's optical coherence and field enhancement over larger areas, enabling large-area, high-brightness emission at low power.

The researchers examined the in-plane directivity and long-range propagation through angle of photoluminescence (PL) emitted in conjunction with SLR, as well as space-resolved spectroscopic PL measurements. The combination exhibited a 1600-fold local enhancement. 

The experiments demonstrate that a nearly 800 µm² 2D luminescent sheet can be produced regardless of the size of the MoSe₂ crystal, even when using a sub-µm² flake.

There is increasing interest in display technologies that extend beyond IMAX toward immersive, ultra-large-scale formats such as the Las Vegas Sphere. Future displays are expected to be flexible, energy-efficient, high-brightness, and capable of large-area emission. This study is an important step toward addressing key limitations of 2D semiconductors and supporting the development of next-generation display and optical communication technologies.

By integrating Babinet’s principle and surface lattice resonances into a novel metasurface architecture, we present a fundamentally new design that overcomes longstanding limitations of conventional plasmonic systems. This platform is poised to become a core technology in future high-brightness displays and photonic communication devices.

Joint Statement from the Researchers at South Korea’s Pohang University of Science and Technology and Russia’s ITMO University 

They believe the platform could serve as a core technology in future display and optical communication devices, addressing key limitations that have held back 2D semiconductors in real-world applications.

Journal Reference:

‌Koo, Y., et al. (2025). High momentum two-dimensional propagation of emitted photoluminescence coupled with surface lattice resonance. Light: Science & Applications. doi.org/10.1038/s41377-025-01873-3.