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Chiral Light Design and Detection Inspired by Optical Antenna Theory
Lisa V Poulikakos1, Prachi Thureja1, Alexia Stollmann1
1Optical Materials Engineering Laboratory, Department of Mechanical and Process Engineering , ETH Zurich , 8092 Zurich , Switzerland.
Nano Letters
|March 14, 2018
Summary
Researchers developed new chiral antenna parameters to quantify chiral light generation and dissipation. Chirality flux spectroscopy offers a label-free method to measure these fields, enabling advanced chiral optical applications.
Area of Science:
- Plasmonics and Nanophotonics
- Chiral Electromagnetism
Background:
- Chiral metallic nanostructures generate highly twisted evanescent fields, but their optimal utilization is hindered by a lack of quantitative understanding.
- Existing methods do not fully capture the dynamics of chiral electromagnetic field generation and dissipation.
Purpose of the Study:
- To introduce novel chiral antenna parameters for quantifying chiral light.
- To develop a label-free spectroscopic technique for measuring chiral near and far fields.
Main Methods:
- Introduction of chirality flux efficiency and chiral antenna aperture based on chirality conservation.
- Development and application of chirality flux spectroscopy.
- Theoretical and experimental verification using 2D chiral coupled nanorod antennas.
Main Results:
- Demonstrated linear dependence of chiral near and far fields on magnetoelectric polarizability in nanorod antennas.
- Validated the concept of quantifying chiral electromagnetic fields.
- Established chirality flux spectroscopy as a method to probe chiral near fields via far-field measurements.
Conclusions:
- The developed chiral antenna parameters provide a quantitative framework for chiral light.
- Chirality flux spectroscopy enables label-free characterization of chiral electromagnetic fields.
- This work paves the way for tunable chiral optical applications like ultrasensitive molecular chirality detection and optical information processing.
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