Tuning dipolar and multipolar resonances of chiral silicon nanostructures for control of near field superchirality

Abstract

Chiral materials display a property called optical activity, which is the capability to interact differentially with left and right circularly polarised light. This leads to the ability to manipulate the polarisation state of light, which has a broad range of applications spanning from energy efficient displays to quantum technologies. Both synthesised and engineered chiral nanomaterials are exploited in such devices. The design strategy for optimising the optical activity of a chiral material is typically based on maximising a single parameter, the electric dipole–magnetic dipole response. Here we demonstrate an alternative approach of controlling optical activity by manipulating both the dipole and multipolar response of a nanomaterial. This provides an additional parameter for material design, affording greater flexibility. The exemplar systems used to illustrate the strategy are nanofabricated chiral silicon structures. The multipolar response of the structures, and hence their optical activity, can be controlled simply by varying their height. This phenomenon allows optical activity and the creation of so called superchiral fields, with enhanced asymmetries, to be controlled over a broader wavelength range, than is achievable with just the electric dipole–magnetic dipole response. This work adds to the material design toolbox providing a route to novel nanomaterials for optoelectronics and sensing applications.