The super-chirality of vector twisted light

M. Babiker, J. Yuan*, K. Koksal, V. E. Lembessis

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

Vector vortex light of topological order m arises as a superposition of two twisted modes with phase functions e±imϕ (with ϕ the azimuthal variable) and circular polarizations (σ=∓1). We demonstrate that when m is sufficiently large these modes exhibit enhanced helicity densities when compared with the equivalent circularly-polarized Gaussian modes. The enhancement stems from the presence of longitudinal field components which become significant even for moderate beam widths. The super-chirality of light–matter interactions enabled by such modes suggests a high degree of enantioselectivity, surpassing conventional techniques for the chiral selection, so promising useful applications.

Original languageEnglish
Article number130185
Number of pages5
JournalOptics Communications
Volume554
Early online date2 Dec 2023
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 1 Mar 2024

Bibliographical note

© 2023 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V.

Keywords

  • Chiral selection
  • Enantioselectivity
  • Light–matter interaction
  • Longitudinal component
  • Superchirality
  • Vector vortex light

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