Strong and Engineerable Optical Anisotropy in Easily Integrable Epitaxial SrO(SrTiO3)N Ruddlesden–Popper Thin Layers

Abstract

Optical anisotropy is a key property for numerous photonic devices. However, bulk anisotropic materials suitable for such applications remain relatively scarse and are often challenging to synthesize as thin films. Additionally, the optical losses as well as the complex structuration of anisotropic metamaterials hinder their integrability in photonic devices. Based on ellipsometry measurements coupled with reflectance, it is demonstrated here that Ruddlesden-Popper (RP) SrO(SrTiO₃)_N phases (STO-RP_N), epitaxial thin films composed of a SrTiO₃ lattice periodically interrupted by one SrO atomic plane every N unit cells, exhibit pronounced dichroism and birefringence over a broad spectral range. Notably, this anisotropy is tunable by adjusting the RP order N. In contrast to most other anisotropic materials reported in the literature, STO-RP_N thin layers can be fabricated using industry-standard growth processes. As it can be epitaxially grown on Si and GaAs using SrTiO₃ templates, the work paves the way for their compact integration on these photonic platforms.