Perfect Chirality with Imperfect Polarization

Benjamin J F Lang*, Dara P S McCutcheon, Edmund G H Harbord, Andrew B Young, Ruth Oulton

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticle (Academic Journal)peer-review

13 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Unidirectional (chiral) emission of light from a circular dipole emitter into a waveguide is only possible at points of perfect circular polarization (C points), with elliptical polarizations yielding a lower directional contrast. However, there is no need to restrict engineered systems to circular dipoles, and with an appropriate choice of dipole unidirectional emission is possible for any elliptical polarization. Using elliptical dipoles, rather than circular, typically increases the size of the area suitable for chiral interactions (in an exemplary mode by a factor ∼30), while simultaneously increasing coupling efficiencies. We propose illustrative schemes to engineer the necessary elliptical transitions in both atomic systems and quantum dots.

Original languageEnglish
Article number073602
Pages (from-to)073602
Number of pages6
JournalPhysical Review Letters
Volume128
Issue number7
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 16 Feb 2022

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
We gratefully acknowledge EPSRC funding through the projects 1D QED (EP/N003381/1), SPIN SPACE (EP/M024156/1) and B. L.’s studentship (DTA-1407622). This work was also supported by Leverhulme Trust Research Project Grant No. RPG-2018-213. We thank Joseph Lennon for help with data access issues.

Publisher Copyright:
© 2022 American Physical Society.

Research Groups and Themes

  • Bristol Quantum Information Institute
  • QETLabs
  • Photonics and Quantum

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