Optically Active and Nonlinear Chiral Metamaterials

TL;DR

This review discusses recent advances in active and nonlinear chiral metamaterials, highlighting their potential for innovative applications in biochemistry, valleytronics, spintronics, and quantum optics through unique optical activities.

Contribution

It summarizes novel developments in active and nonlinear chiral metamaterials, emphasizing less-known effects like magneto-chiral anisotropy and third-harmonic scattering.

Findings

Magneto-chiral anisotropy demonstrated in metamaterials

Third-harmonic Rayleigh scattering shows optical activity

Potential applications in biochemistry and quantum optics

Abstract

Advanced photonic nanostructures have enabled the maximization of synthetic chiroptic activities. The unique structuring of these building blocks has empowered chiral selective interactions with electromagnetic waves in plasmonic structures and dielectric media. Given the repertoire of optimized chiral surfaces in the literature and the ubiquity of chirality in the organic realm, the natural direction to consider is the operation of these devices in larger optical systems much like their chiral organic counterparts. In this review, we recapitulate advances in active and nonlinear chiral metamaterials. Many of the results, such as the magneto-chiral anisotropy and third-harmonic Rayleigh scattering optical activity, are relatively unknown members of the more conventional family of tuning methodology and nonlinear processes. We believe they are poised to play an instrumental role in designing advanced chiroptic systems for applications in biochemistry, valleytronics, spintronics, and chiral quantum optics.