Giant nonlinear optical chirality in twisted heterobilayers
Abstract
Twisting two dissimilar monolayer semiconductors induces structural chirality that remains largely elusive in linear optics but becomes remarkably pronounced in the nonlinear regime. Here we demonstrate that MoS2/WSe2 heterobilayers exhibit giant, twist-tunable nonlinear chirality in second-harmonic generation (SHG). The sign of SHG circular dichroism is governed by structural handedness, and its magnitude reaches 1.96 near a 30{\deg} twist angle under 1260-nm excitation, approaching the theoretical limit of 2. Furthermore, reversed chirality is observed when light is incident from opposite directions. Using a layer-resolved model, we attribute this phenomenon to helicity-dependent interference between the two monolayer SHG fields, mediated by a nonlinear Pancharatnam-Berry phase. These findings establish that the relative orientation of atomically thin layers can deterministically control nonlinear chiral responses, identifying twisted 2D heterostructures as a versatile platform for nonlinear chiral photonics, frequency conversion, and ultracompact light-matter interfaces.
Cite
@article{arxiv.2605.17695,
title = {Giant nonlinear optical chirality in twisted heterobilayers},
author = {Xiang Zhang and Bo Li and Leyi Zhao and Pengzhi Wang and Luwei Zhou and Jiangbo Peng and Gan Wang and Kian Ping Loh and Tao-Yuan Du and Mingjie Li},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2605.17695},
year = {2026}
}