Helicity exchange and symmetry breaking of in-plane phonon scattering of h-BN probed by polarized Raman spectroscopy

Due to its atomic thickness and insulating nature, hexagonal boron nitride (h-BN) is considered to be one of the most promising substrates and gate insulating materials for two-dimensional electronic devices. In this study, polarized Raman spectroscopy was employed to uncover the effects of polarized incident light on the optical properties of h-BN phonon modes. Our measured polarization-resolved Raman spectra indicate that the symmetrical nature and the broken symmetry of degenerate phonon modes from h-BN are induced by linearly and elliptically polarized light, respectively. Moreover, a helicity exchange was observed between the excitation of circularly polarized light and the resulting opposite circular polarization of scattered light from h-BN. The measured phenomena were modeled on the basis of Raman tensors and Jones calculus to eventually calculate the amplitude coefficients of two orthogonal in-plane phonon modes. Hence, our experimental study provides a holistic understanding of the vibrational modes in h-BN, which is expected to enhance the knowledge of physical mechanisms such as heat capacity and thermal and electrical conductivities of this layered material.