# Mimicking Chiral Light-Matter Interaction

## TL;DR

This paper shows that electric-dipole scatterers can produce far-field circular polarization mimicking chiral light-matter interactions, revealing new insights into optical duality symmetry and polarization effects.

## Contribution

It introduces a novel mechanism where electric-dipole scatterers generate circular polarization without intrinsic optical chirality, expanding understanding of light-matter interaction symmetry.

## Key findings

- Electric-dipole scatterers can produce circular polarization in scattered light.
- Experimental validation using gold nanoparticles and spiral polarization beams.
- Theoretical model explains the polarization depolarization and symmetry aspects.

## Abstract

We demonstrate that electric-dipole scatterers can mimic chiral light-matter interaction by generating far-field circular polarization upon scattering, even though the optical chirality of the incident field as well as that of the scattered light is zero. The presented effect originates from the fact that electric-dipole scatterers respond selectively only to the incident electric field, which eventually results in depolarization of the transmitted beam and in generation of far-field circular polarization. To experimentally demonstrate this effect we utilize a cylindrical vector beam with spiral polarization and a spherical gold nanoparticle positioned on the optical axis -- the axis of rotational symmetry of the system. Our experiment and a simple theoretical model address the fundamentals of duality symmetry in optics and chiral light-matter interactions, accentuating their richness and ubiquity yet in highly symmetric configurations.