Related Experiment Video
Updated: Oct 4, 2025
08:51
Coulomb Explosion Imaging as a Tool to Distinguish Between Stereoisomers
Published on: August 18, 2017
10.5K
Chiral and degenerate perfect absorption on exceptional surfaces
S Soleymani1, Q Zhong2, M Mokim1
1Department of Engineering Science and Mechanics, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA, 16802, USA.
Nature Communications
|February 2, 2022
Summary
Researchers developed a new method to control light-matter interactions using exceptional surfaces (ES) instead of discrete exceptional points (EPs). This approach enables chiral perfect absorption for advanced sensing and quantum studies.
Area of Science:
- Non-Hermitian photonics
- Quantum optics
- Waveguide-resonator systems
Background:
- Engineering light-matter interactions with non-Hermiticity, particularly exceptional points (EPs), is crucial for applications like sensing and quantum electrodynamics.
- Tuning systems to discrete EPs is experimentally challenging.
Purpose of the Study:
- To circumvent the challenge of tuning to discrete exceptional points (EPs).
- To demonstrate a novel approach for controlling light-matter interactions using an exceptional surface (ES).
Main Methods:
- Operating a waveguide-coupled resonator on an exceptional surface (ES).
- Utilizing a tuneable symmetric reflector at one waveguide end to induce nonreciprocal coupling.
- Achieving critical coupling on the ES.
Main Results:
- Demonstrated chiral and degenerate perfect absorption.
- Observed a squared-Lorentzian lineshape.
- Successfully operated on an exceptional surface (ES) bypassing discrete exceptional points (EPs).
Conclusions:
- The exceptional surface (ES) approach offers a more stable platform for studying non-Hermitian physics.
- This method can be applied to quantum processes at EPs and radiation engineering.
- Provides a bridge between non-Hermitian physics and applied fields like sensing and thermal imaging.
More Related Videos
09:43Interfacial Molecular-level Structures of Polymers and Biomacromolecules Revealed via Sum Frequency Generation Vibrational Spectroscopy
Published on: August 13, 2019
9.5K
09:00Experimental Methods for Spin- and Angle-Resolved Photoemission Spectroscopy Combined with Polarization-Variable Laser
Published on: June 28, 2018
10.1K
Related Concept Videos
02:25Chirality
26.5K
Chirality is a term that describes the lack of mirror symmetry in an object. In other words, chiral objects cannot be superposed on their mirror images. For example, our feet are chiral, as the mirror image of the left foot, the right foot, cannot be superposed on the left foot.
Chiral objects exhibit a sense of handedness when they interact with another chiral object. For example, our left foot can only fit in the left shoe and not in the right shoe. Achiral objects — objects that have...
Chiral objects exhibit a sense of handedness when they interact with another chiral object. For example, our left foot can only fit in the left shoe and not in the right shoe. Achiral objects — objects that have...
26.5K
02:30Chirality in Nature
14.5K
Chirality is the most intriguing yet essential facet of nature, governing life’s biochemical processes and precision. It can be observed from a snail shell pattern in a macroscopic world to an amino acid, the minutest building block of life. Most of the snails around the world have right-coiled shells because of the intrinsic chirality in their genes. All the amino acids present in the human body exist in an enantiomerically pure state, except for glycine - the sole achiral amino acid.
14.5K
02:25Molecules with Multiple Chiral Centers
13.4K
Molecules that possess multiple chiral centers can afford a large number of stereoisomers. For instance, while some molecules like 2-butanol have one chiral center, defined as a tetrahedral carbon atom with four different substituents attached, several molecules like butane-2,3-diol have multiple chiral centers. A simple formula to predict the number of stereoisomers possible for a molecule with n chiral centers is 2n. However, there can be a lower number where some of the stereoisomers are...
13.4K
02:30Chirality at Nitrogen, Phosphorus, and Sulfur
6.1K
Chirality is most prevalent in carbon-based tetrahedral compounds, but this important facet of molecular symmetry extends to sp3-hybridized nitrogen, phosphorus and sulfur centers, including trivalent molecules with lone pairs. Here, the lone pair behaves as a functional group in addition to the other three substituents to form an analogous tetrahedral center that can be chiral.
A consequence of chirality is the need for enantiomeric resolution. While this is theoretically possible for all...
A consequence of chirality is the need for enantiomeric resolution. While this is theoretically possible for all...
6.1K
02:05Prochirality
4.1K
The concept of prochirality leads to the nomenclature of the individual faces of a molecule and plays a crucial role in the enantioselective reaction. It is a concept where two or more achiral molecules react to produce chiral products. A typical process is the reaction of an achiral ketone to generate a chiral alcohol. Here, the achiral reactant reacts with an achiral reducing agent, sodium borohydride, to generate an equimolar mixture of the chiral enantiomers of the product. For example, an...
4.1K
02:24Properties of Enantiomers and Optical Activity
18.7K
It is essential to understand the difference between chiral and achiral interactions and the implications thereof in optical activity and their applications. Just as our feet, which are chiral, interact uniquely with chiral objects, such as a pair of shoes, but identically with achiral socks, enantiomers of a molecule exhibit different properties only when they interact with other chiral media. An example of a significant implication from this facet is the phenomenon known as optical activity,...
18.7K