Optical chirality of vortex beams at the nanoscale

Green, Dale ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2549-0486 and Forbes, Kayn A. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8884-3496 (2023) Optical chirality of vortex beams at the nanoscale. Nanoscale, 15 (2). pp. 540-552. ISSN 2040-3364

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Abstract

In this work we undertake a systematic study of the optical chirality density of Laguerre-Gaussian and Bessel laser beams tightly focused into nanoscale volumes. In particular we highlight the unique contributions to optical chirality from longitudinal electromagnetic fields, i.e. light that is polarised in the direction of propagation. The influence that polarisation, spin and orbital angular momentum, radial index, degree of focusing, and diffraction has on the optical chirality is studied. The results show that the optical chirality of structured light beams at the nanoscale is significantly richer than that of the well-known circularly polarised propagating plane wave. The work lays the foundation for chiral nanophotonics, and chiral quantum optics based on structured light illumination.

Item Type: Article
Additional Information: Funding Information: KAF is grateful to the Leverhulme Trust for funding him through a Leverhulme Trust Early Career Fellowship (Grant No. ECF-2019-398).
Uncontrolled Keywords: materials science(all) ,/dk/atira/pure/subjectarea/asjc/2500
Faculty \ School: Faculty of Science > School of Chemistry
UEA Research Groups: Faculty of Science > Research Groups > Chemistry of Light and Energy
Faculty of Science > Research Groups > Centre for Photonics and Quantum Science
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Depositing User: LivePure Connector
Date Deposited: 19 Dec 2022 11:31
Last Modified: 09 Feb 2023 13:51
URI: https://ueaeprints.uea.ac.uk/id/eprint/90278
DOI: 10.1039/D2NR05426D

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