Electrically-driven chiral emission from plasmonic tunnel junctions

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates nanoscale generation of chiral light using plasmonic tunnel junctions integrated with chiral nanohelicoids, enabling controlled spin and orbital angular momentum in emitted photons.

Contribution

It introduces a novel method for electrically-driven chiral light emission at the nanoscale by combining tunnel junctions with chiral plasmonic structures, achieving high handedness selectivity.

Findings

Achieved nanoscale chiral light emission with spin angular momentum selectivity over 0.8.

Demonstrated vortex light beam emission with opposite orbital angular momentum.

Showcased potential applications in quantum information and photochemistry.

Abstract

Chirality plays a crucial role in a broad range of processes including light-matter interactions in physics, chemistry and biology, which opens up new applications in nanophotonics, quantum technologies and photochemistry. Quantum tunnelling provides a promising mechanism for light generation at the nanoscale, however the realisation of chiral light emission has remained elusive. Here, by integrating tunnel junctions with chiral plasmonic nanohelicoids, we achieve nanoscale generation of chiral light at a single-particle level. The tunnelling-driven resonant excitation of chiral dipolar modes of the nanohelicoids results in emission of a vortex light beam possessing both spin angular momentum with handedness selectivity of over 0.8 and its orbital counterpart, equal in magnitude and opposite in sign. The developed approach offers a new means for sculpturing photon spin generation at the nanoscale, highlighting its potential for next-generation optical components in display and AR/VR applications, as well as quantum information processing and photochemistry.