Chirality Dependent Photon Transport and Helical Superradiance

TL;DR

This paper reveals how chiral arrangements of atoms can enable unidirectional, helicity-dependent photon transport and superradiance, linking chirality, topology, and photon behavior in quantum systems.

Contribution

It introduces a mechanism for helicity-dependent photon transport and superradiance driven by chiral geometry and emergent spin-orbit coupling, with implications for quantum simulation.

Findings

Chiral arrangements induce unidirectional photon transport.

Chirality leads to topologically nontrivial photon states.

Collective dissipation results in helicity-dependent photon emission.

Abstract

Chirality, or handedness, is a geometrical property denoting a lack of mirror symmetry. Chirality is ubiquitous in nature and is associated with the non-reciprocal interactions observed in complex systems ranging from biomolecules to topological materials. Here, we demonstrate that chiral arrangements of dipole-coupled atoms or molecules can facilitate the unidirectional transport of helical photonic excitations without breaking time-reversal symmetry. We show that such helicity dependent transport stems from an emergent spin-orbit coupling induced by the chiral geometry, which results in nontrivial topological properties. We also examine the effects of collective dissipation and find that many-body coherences lead to helicity dependent photon emission: an effect we call helical superradiance. Our results demonstrate an intimate connection between chirality, topology, and photon helicity that may contribute to molecular photodynamics in nature and could be probed with near-term quantum simulators.