Related papers: Circular-polarization sensitive metamaterial based…
We analyze two simple model planar molecules: an ionic molecule with D3 symmetry and a covalent molecule with D6 symmetry. Both symmetries allow the existence of chiral molecular orbitals and normal modes that are coupled to each other in a…
A measure of the degree of polarization for the three-dimensional polarization matrix (coherence matrix) of an electromagnetic field is proposed, based on Rayleigh scattering. The degree of polarization, due to dipole scattering of the…
We investigate the influence of chirality on the PT-symmetric and PT-broken phase of PT-symmetric chiral systems. Starting from the point that transverse magnetic (TM) and transverse electric (TE) waves have different exceptional points, we…
A new scheme for enantiomer differentiation of chiral molecules using a pair of linearly polarized intense ultrashort laser pulses with skewed mutual polarization is presented. The technique relies on the fact that the off-diagonal…
Near-zero-refractive index materials display unique optical properties such as perfect transmission through distorted waveguides, cloaking, and inhibited diffraction. Compared to conventional media, they can fundamentally behave differently…
We show that the chirality of artificial media, made of a planar periodic arrangement of three-dimensional metallic meta-atoms, can be tailored. The meta-atoms support localized plasmon polaritons and exhibit a chirality exceeding that of…
The axial propagation of circularly polarized light in an optically active structurally chiral medium is exactly solved via full electromagnetic analysis. Some symmetries of the system's characteristic matrix reveal new insights, which are…
Chirality is a fundamental concept in physics that underpins various phenomena in nonlinear optics, quantum physics, and topological photonics. Although the spin of a photon naturally brings chirality, orbital angular momentum can also…
We present new optical circular polarization measurements with typical uncertainties < 0.1% for a sample of 21 quasars. All but two objects have null circular polarization. We use this result to constrain the polarization due to…
Distinguishing between the left- and right-handed versions of a chiral molecule (enantiomers) is vital, but also inherently difficult. Traditional optical methods using elliptically or circularly polarized light rely on weak linear effects…
Single fluorescent molecules, behaving as ideal electric dipole emitters, are powerful nanoscopic probes of complex optical fields. Here, this property is exploited to precisely map the polarization and vectorial structure of tightly…
The recent emergence of chirality in mechanical metamaterials has revolutionized the field, enabling achievements in wave propagation and polarization control. Despite being an intrinsic feature of some molecules and ubiquitous in our…
Optically active achiral metasurfaces offer a promising way to detect chiral molecules based on chiroptic methods. The combination of plasmonic enhanced circular dichroism and reversible optical activity would boost the sensitivity and…
We study the interaction of a weak probe field, having two orthogonally polarized components, with an optically dense medium of four-level atoms in a tripod configuration. In the presence of a coherent driving laser, electromagnetically…
Partially coherent electromagnetic sources with cylindrical symmetry and infinite extent radiating outwards are introduced. Their $3\times3$ cross-spectral density matrix is given through expansions of the field components in terms of basis…
We predict theoretically and demonstrate experimentally an ellipticity-dependent nonlinear magneto-optic rotation of elliptically-polarized light propagating in a coherent atomic medium. We show that this effect results from a hexadecapole…
Metasurfaces have revolutionized nonlinear and quantum light manipulation in the past decade, enabling the design of materials that can tune polarization, frequency, and direction of light simultaneously. However, tuning of metasurfaces is…
We report circular-to-linear and linear-to-circular conversion of optical polarization by semiconductor quantum dots. The polarization conversion occurs under continuous wave excitation in absence of any magnetic field. The effect…
Circular dichroism spectroscopy is an essential technique for understanding molecular structure and magnetic materials, but spatial resolution is limited by the wavelength of light, and sensitivity sufficient for single-molecule…
Optical beams with a new and distinctive type of helicity have become the subject of much recent interest. While circularly polarised light comprises photons with spin angular momentum, these optically engineered 'twisted beams' (optical…