Chiral Light in Twisted Fabry-Prot Cavities

Fundamental studies of the interaction of chiral light with chiral matter are important for the development of techniques that allow handedness-selective optical detection of chiral organic molecules. One approach to achieve this goal is the creation of a Fabry-Perot cavity that supports eigenmodes with a desired electromagnetic handedness. This paper theoretically studies chiral Fabry-Perot cavities with mirrors comprising 1D photonic crystal slabs made of van der Waals As2S3, a material with one of the highest known in-plane anisotropies. By utilizing the anisotropy provided by As2S3, Fabry-Perot cavities with constitutional and configurational chiralities are designed. It is demonstrated that in cavities with constitutional chirality, electromagnetic modes of left or right handedness exist due to the chirality of both mirrors, often referred to as handedness preserving mirrors in the literature. At the same time, cavities with configurational chirality support modes of both handednesses due to the chiral morphology of the entire structure, set by the twist angle between the optical axes of the upper and lower non-chiral anisotropic mirrors. The developed chiral Fabry-Perot cavities can be tuned to any distance between the mirrors by properly twisting them, making such systems a prospective platform for the coupling of chiral light with chiral matter. Fabry-Perot cavities comprising twisted 1D dielectric gratings support chiral electromagnetic modes. The developed chiral Fabry-Perot cavities can be tuned to any resonant distance between the mirrors by properly twisting them, making such systems a prospective platform for the coupling of chiral light with chiral matter. image