Giant nonlinear optical chirality in twisted heterobilayers

TL;DR

Twisted heterobilayers of semiconductors exhibit giant, tunable nonlinear optical chirality in second-harmonic generation, controlled by structural handedness and incident light direction, with potential for advanced photonic applications.

Contribution

This work demonstrates for the first time giant nonlinear optical chirality in twisted 2D heterobilayers and explains its origin through a helicity-dependent interference model.

Findings

SHG circular dichroism reaches 1.96 near 30° twist angle

Reversed chirality observed with opposite light incidence

Nonlinear Pancharatnam-Berry phase mediates the effect

Abstract

Twisting two dissimilar monolayer semiconductors induces structural chirality that remains largely elusive in linear optics but becomes remarkably pronounced in the nonlinear regime. Here we demonstrate that MoS2/WSe2 heterobilayers exhibit giant, twist-tunable nonlinear chirality in second-harmonic generation (SHG). The sign of SHG circular dichroism is governed by structural handedness, and its magnitude reaches 1.96 near a 30{\deg} twist angle under 1260-nm excitation, approaching the theoretical limit of 2. Furthermore, reversed chirality is observed when light is incident from opposite directions. Using a layer-resolved model, we attribute this phenomenon to helicity-dependent interference between the two monolayer SHG fields, mediated by a nonlinear Pancharatnam-Berry phase. These findings establish that the relative orientation of atomically thin layers can deterministically control nonlinear chiral responses, identifying twisted 2D heterostructures as a versatile platform for nonlinear chiral photonics, frequency conversion, and ultracompact light-matter interfaces.