Hyperbolic Phonon Polaritons and Wave Vector Direction-Dependent Dielectric Tensors in Anisotropic Crystals

Hyperbolic phonon polariton is important in precisely controlling photons at the nanoscale. It is a common practice to calculate the dielectric function of the phonon polariton system with the Drude–Lorenz model. We considered the impact of longitudinal optical–transverse optical splitting while applying the Drude–Lorenz model. Then, the dielectric functions became wave vector direction-dependent besides electric polarization direction-dependent. Our results show that considering longitudinal optical–transverse optical splitting can more accurately predict dielectric functions. Additionally, we discovered that, besides hexagonal BN, hexagonal AlN exhibits a wide hyperbolic frequency band range, while the other four III–V semiconductor materials (BP, AlP, GaN, GaP) display it scarcely. Furthermore, we found that the phonon frequency, lifetime, and the difference of infrared active transverse optical phonon frequencies with different wave vector directions are critical factors in determining the width of the hyperbolic frequency band range. We also found some dumbbell-shaped and butterfly-shaped isofrequency curves in h-AlN, h-GaP, and especially h-GaN. Our study provides a fresh perspective on understanding the dielectric properties of these materials and lays a theoretical foundation for further exploration and development of new hyperbolic phonon polariton materials.