Unidirectional Chiral Emission via Twisted Bi-layer Metasurfaces

TL;DR

This study demonstrates experimental unidirectional chiral emission from twisted bi-layer metasurfaces, achieving high circular dichroism and directional control over quantum dot emission, with potential applications in miniaturized photonic devices.

Contribution

It provides the first experimental observation of unidirectional chiral emission from resonant metasurfaces with quantum emitters using multi-dimensional control.

Findings

Achieved near-unity circular dichroism of 0.94 across wide angles.

Engineered lateral displacement induces unidirectional emission.

Demonstrated a universal platform for wide-angle radiation control.

Abstract

Controlling and channelling light emissions from unpolarized quantum dots into specific directions with chiral polarization remains a key challenge in modern photonics. Stacked metasurface designs offer a potential compact solution for chirality and directionality engineering. However, experimental observations of directional chiral radiation from resonant metasurfaces with quantum emitters remain obscure. In this paper, we present experimental observations of unidirectional chiral emission from a twisted bi-layer metasurface via multi-dimensional control, including twist angle, interlayer distance, and lateral displacement between the top and bottom layers, as enabled by doublet alignment lithography (DAL). First, maintaining alignment, the metasurface demonstrates a resonant intrinsic optical chirality with near-unity circular dichroism of 0.94 and reflectance difference of 74%, where a high circular dichroism greater than 0.9 persists across a wide range of angles from -11 to 11 degrees. Second, engineered lateral displacement induces a unidirectional chiral resonance, resulting in unidirectional chiral emission from the quantum dots deposited onto the metasurface. Our bi-layer metasurfaces offer a universal compact platform for efficient radiation manipulation over a wide angular range, promising potential applications in miniaturized lasers, grating couplers, and chiral nanoantennas.