Electric-field-enhanced circular dichroism of helical semiconductor nanoribbons

In this Letter, we analyze circular dichroism (CD) enhancement of a helical semiconductor nanoribbon exposed to a weak homogenous electric field. By creating a periodic superlattice for the confined electrons, the electric field splits the electronic sub-bands into minibands and gives rise to critical points in the electronic density of states. We show that the modification of the electronic energy spectrum results in the appearance of new optically active transitions in the CD and absorption spectra, and that the CD signal of the nanoribbon is significantly enhanced at the critical points. The ability to dynamically control the chiroptical response of semiconductor nanoribbons by an external electric field makes them promising for the next-generation nanophotonic devices.