In contrast to paraxial light fields, the intrinsic angular momentum of transversally confined light fields is position-dependent and can be oriented perpendicular to the propagation direction. The interaction of emitters with such light fields leads to new and surprising effects. For example, the intrinsic mirror symmetry of dipolar emission can be broken. This allowed us to realize chiral interfaces between plasmonic nanoparticles or atoms and a nanophotonic waveguide in which the emission direction into the waveguide is controlled by the polarization of the emitted light. Moreover, we employed this chiral interaction to demonstrate nonreciprocal transmission of waveguided light.

Date Published: 9 November 2016
PDF: 1 pages
Proc. SPIE 9920, Active Photonic Materials VIII, 99200U (9 November 2016); doi: 10.1117/12.2238614

Published in SPIE Proceedings Vol. 9920:
Active Photonic Materials VIII
Ganapathi S. Subramania; Stavroula Foteinopoulou, Editor(s)