Resumen: With the advance of on-chip nanophotonics, there is a high demand for high-refractive-index and low-loss materials. Currently, this technology is dominated by silicon, but van der Waals (vdW) materials with a high refractive index can offer a very advanced alternative. Still, up to now, it was not clear if the optical anisotropy perpendicular to the layers might be a hindering factor for the development of vdW nanophotonics. Here, we studied WS2-based waveguides in terms of their optical properties and, particularly, in terms of possible crosstalk distance. Surprisingly, we discovered that the low refractive index in the direction perpendicular to the atomic layers improves the characteristics of such devices, mainly due to expanding the range of parameters at which single-mode propagation can be achieved. Thus, using anisotropic materials offers new opportunities and novel control knobs when designing nanophotonic devices. Idioma: Inglés DOI: 10.1021/acs.nanolett.3c02051 Año: 2023 Publicado en: Nano Letters 23, 17 (2023), 8057-8064 ISSN: 1530-6984 Factor impacto JCR: 9.6 (2023) Categ. JCR: CHEMISTRY, PHYSICAL rank: 30 / 178 = 0.169 (2023) - Q1 - T1 Categ. JCR: MATERIALS SCIENCE, MULTIDISCIPLINARY rank: 56 / 439 = 0.128 (2023) - Q1 - T1 Categ. JCR: NANOSCIENCE & NANOTECHNOLOGY rank: 24 / 141 = 0.17 (2023) - Q1 - T1 Categ. JCR: PHYSICS, CONDENSED MATTER rank: 10 / 79 = 0.127 (2023) - Q1 - T1 Categ. JCR: CHEMISTRY, MULTIDISCIPLINARY rank: 29 / 231 = 0.126 (2023) - Q1 - T1 Categ. JCR: PHYSICS, APPLIED rank: 18 / 179 = 0.101 (2023) - Q1 - T1 Factor impacto CITESCORE: 16.8 - Condensed Matter Physics (Q1) - Bioengineering (Q1) - Chemistry (all) (Q1) - Materials Science (all) (Q1) - Mechanical Engineering (Q1)