Issue 10, 2022

Correlations between helicity and optical losses within general electromagnetic scattering theory

Abstract

Helicity preserving nanostructures and metasurfaces have been recently proposed as suitable candidates to enhance spectroscopic features of chiral molecules. With this in mind, we highlight that losses in the constituent nonmagnetic materials dramatically affect the possibility of constructing structures which conserve helicity. We first present a general procedure that permits the evaluation of the normalized helicity expectation value, Image ID:d2ma00052k-t1.gif, i.e. the observable that allows for the identification of helicity preserving scatterers. We then apply this procedure to the case of a chiral sphere, which in an orientation averaged picture can capture the optical response of chiral inorganic nanostructures, obtaining a widely applicable analytical expression of Image ID:d2ma00052k-t2.gif. Finally, we numerically show that optical losses impose an upper bound to the helicity expectation value on nonmagnetic core–shells and chiral spheres.

Graphical abstract: Correlations between helicity and optical losses within general electromagnetic scattering theory

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
18 Jan 2022
Accepted
06 Mar 2022
First published
08 Mar 2022
This article is Open Access
Creative Commons BY license

Mater. Adv., 2022,3, 4179-4185

Correlations between helicity and optical losses within general electromagnetic scattering theory

J. Lasa-Alonso, J. Olmos-Trigo, A. García-Etxarri and G. Molina-Terriza, Mater. Adv., 2022, 3, 4179 DOI: 10.1039/D2MA00052K

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