Chiral Polaritonics: Analytical Solutions, Intuition, and Use

Unveiling the Dance of Molecules: Rovibrational Dynamics of Molecules under Intense Illumination at Complex Plasmonic Interfaces

Understanding the quantum dynamics of strongly coupled molecule-cavity systems remains a significant challenge in molecular polaritonics. This work develops a comprehensive self-consistent model simulating electromagnetic interactions of diatomic molecules with quantum rovibrational degrees of freedom in resonant optical cavities. The approach employs an efficient numerical methodology to solve coupled Schrödinger-Maxwell equations in real spacetime, enabling three-dimensional simulations through a novel molecular mapping technique. The study investigates the relaxation dynamics of an ensemble of molecules following intense resonant pump excitation in Fabry-Perot cavities and at three-dimensional plasmonic metasurfaces. The simulations reveal dramatically modified relaxation pathways inside cavities compared to free space, characterized by persistent molecular alignment arising from cavity-induced rotational pumping. They also indicate the presence of a previously unreported relaxation stabilization mechanism driven by dephasing of the collective molecular-cavity mode. Additionally, the study demonstrates that strong molecular coupling significantly modifies the circular dichroism spectra of chiral metasurfaces, suggesting new opportunities for controlling light-matter interactions in quantum optical systems.

Plasmonic Chirality Meets Reactivity: Challenges and Opportunities

The unique optoelectronic features associated with plasmonic nanomaterials in a broad energy range of the electromagnetic spectrum have the potential to overcome the current limitations in the development of heterogeneous photocatalytic systems with enantioselective capabilities. Recent advancements in creating plasmonic structures with strong chiroptical features have already enabled asymmetric recognition of molecular substrates or even polarization-sensitive chemical reactivity under visible and near-infrared irradiation. Nevertheless, important developments need to be achieved to attain real enantioselective reactivity solely driven by plasmons. This Perspective discusses current trends in the formation of chiral plasmonic materials and their application as photocatalysts to achieve stereocontrol in photochemical reactions. We summarize the challenges in this field and offer insight into future opportunities that could enhance the effectiveness of these innovative systems.

A general model for designing the chirality of exciton-polaritons

Chirality of exciton-polaritons can be tuned by the chirality of photons, excitons, and their coupling strength. In this work, we propose a general analytical model based on coupled harmonic oscillators to describe the chirality of exciton-polaritons. Our model predicts the degree of circular polarization (DCP) of exciton-polaritons, which is determined by the DCPs and weight fractions of the constituent excitons and photons. At the anticrossing point, the DCP of exciton-polaritons is equally contributed from both constituents. Away from the anticrossing point, the DCP of exciton-polaritons relaxes toward the DCP of the dominant constituent, with the relaxation rate decreasing as the coupling strength increases. We validate our model through simulations of strongly coupled topological edge states and excitons, showing good agreement with model predictions. Our model provides a valuable tool for designing the chirality of strong coupling systems and offers a framework for the inverse design of exciton-polaritons with tailored chirality.

Chiral polaritonics: cavity-mediated enantioselective excitation condensation

Separation of the two mirror images of a chiral molecule, the enantiomers, is a historically complicated problem of major relevance for biological systems. Since chiral molecules are optically active, it has been speculated that strong coupling to circularly polarized fields may be used as a general procedure to unlock enantiospecific reactions. In this work, we focus on how chiral cavities can be used to drive asymmetry in the photochemistry of chiral molecular systems. We first show that strong coupling to circularly polarized fields leads to enantiospecific Rabi splittings, an effect that displays a collective behavior in line with other strong coupling phenomena. Additionally, entanglement with circularly polarized light generates an asymmetry in the enantiomer population of the polaritons, leading to a condensation of the excitation on a preferred molecular configuration. These results confirm that chiral cavities represent a tantalizing opportunity to drive asymmetric photochemistry in enantiomeric mixtures.

The relevance of degenerate states in chiral polaritonics

In this work, we theoretically explore whether a parity-violating/chiral light-matter interaction is required to capture all relevant aspects of chiral polaritonics or if a parity-conserving/achiral theory is sufficient (e.g., long-wavelength/dipole approximation). This question is non-trivial to answer since achiral theories (Hamiltonians) still possess chiral solutions. To elucidate this fundamental theoretical question, a simple GaAs quantum ring model is coupled to an effective chiral mode of a single-handedness optical cavity in dipole approximation. The bare matter GaAs quantum ring possesses a non-degenerate ground state and a doubly degenerate first excited state. The chiral or achiral nature (superpositions) of the degenerate excited states remains undetermined for an isolated matter system. However, inside our parity-conserving description of a chiral cavity, we find that the dressed eigenstates automatically (ab initio) attain chiral character and become energetically discriminated based on the handedness of the cavity. In contrast, the non-degenerate bare matter state (ground state) does not show energetic discrimination inside a chiral cavity within a dipole approximation. Nevertheless, our results suggest that the handedness of the cavity can still be imprinted onto these states (e.g., angular momentum and chiral current densities). Overall, the above findings highlight the relevance of degenerate states in chiral polaritonics. In particular, because recent theoretical results for linearly polarized cavities indicate the formation of a frustrated and highly degenerate electronic ground state under collective strong coupling conditions, which, likewise, is expected to form in chiral polaritonics and, thus, could be prone to chiral symmetry breaking effects.

Controlling Plasmonic Catalysis via Strong Coupling with Electromagnetic Resonators

Plasmonic excitations decay within femtoseconds, leaving nonthermal (often referred to as "hot") charge carriers behind that can be injected into molecular structures to trigger chemical reactions that are otherwise out of reach─a process known as plasmonic catalysis. In this Letter, we demonstrate that strong coupling between resonator structures and plasmonic nanoparticles can be used to control the spectral overlap between the plasmonic excitation energy and the charge injection energy into nearby molecules. Our atomistic description couples real-time density-functional theory self-consistently to an electromagnetic resonator structure via the radiation-reaction potential. Control over the resonator provides then an additional knob for nonintrusively enhancing plasmonic catalysis, here more than 6-fold, and dynamically reacting to deterioration of the catalyst─a new facet of modern catalysis.

Strong Coupling to Circularly Polarized Photons: Toward Cavity-Induced Enantioselectivity

The development of new methodologies for the selective synthesis of individual enantiomers is still one of the major challenges in synthetic chemistry. Many biomolecules, and also many pharmaceutical compounds, are indeed chiral. While the use of chiral reactants or catalysts has led to substantial progress in the field of asymmetric synthesis, a systematic approach applicable to general reactions has still not been proposed. In this work, we demonstrate that strong coupling to circularly polarized fields can induce asymmetry in otherwise nonselective reactions. Specifically, we show that the field induces stereoselectivity in the early stages of chemical reactions by selecting an energetically preferred direction of approach for the reagents. Although the effects observed thus far are too small to significantly drive asymmetric synthesis, our results provide a proof of principle for field-induced stereoselective mechanisms. These findings lay the groundwork for future research.

Angular Momentum Transfer between a Molecular System and a Continuous Circularly Polarized Light Field within a Semiclassical Born-Oppenheimer Surface Hopping Framework

We simulate semiclassically angular momentum transfer for a molecular system subject to a circularly polarized light (CPL) field either moving along a single Born-Oppenheimer (BO) surface or moving along multiple BO surfaces. Both sets of simulations are able to conserve the total angular momentum around the propagation direction of the CPL field, the former requiring a Berry force and the latter requiring a surface parametrized by both nuclear position and momentum (a so-called phase-space approach). Our results provide new insight into the nature of semiclassical nonadiabatic dynamics methods and further demonstrate the power of such methods to capture angular momentum transfer between different media, highlighting the need for accurate algorithms that conserve the total angular momentum.

Mesoscale Molecular Simulations of Fabry-Pérot Vibrational Strong Coupling

Developing theoretical frameworks for vibrational strong coupling (VSC) beyond the single-mode approximation is crucial for a comprehensive understanding of experiments with planar Fabry-Pérot cavities. Herein, a generalized cavity molecular dynamics (CavMD) scheme is developed to simulate VSC of a large ensemble of realistic molecules coupled to an arbitrary 1D or 2D photonic environment. This approach is built upon the Power-Zienau-Woolley Hamiltonian in the normal mode basis and uses a grid representation of the molecular ensembles to reduce the computational cost. When simulating the polariton dispersion relation for a homogeneous distribution of molecules in planar Fabry-Pérot cavities, our data highlight the importance of preserving the in-plane translational symmetry of the molecular distribution. In this homogeneous limit, CavMD yields the consistent polariton dispersion relation as an analytic theory, i.e., incorporating many cavity modes with varying in-plane wave vectors (k∥) produces the same spectrum as the system with a single cavity mode. Furthermore, CavMD reveals that the validity of the single-mode approximation is challenged when nonequilibrium polariton dynamics are considered, as polariton-polariton scattering occurs between modes with the nearest neighbor k∥. The procedure for numerically approaching the macroscopic limit is also demonstrated with CavMD by increasing the system size. Looking forward, our generalized CavMD approach may facilitate understanding vibrational polariton transport and condensation.

Twisted van der Waals Quantum Materials: Fundamentals, Tunability, and Applications

Twisted van der Waals (vdW) quantum materials have emerged as a rapidly developing field of two-dimensional (2D) semiconductors. These materials establish a new central research area and provide a promising platform for studying quantum phenomena and investigating the engineering of novel optoelectronic properties such as single photon emission, nonlinear optical response, magnon physics, and topological superconductivity. These captivating electronic and optical properties result from, and can be tailored by, the interlayer coupling using moiré patterns formed by vertically stacking atomic layers with controlled angle misorientation or lattice mismatch. Their outstanding properties and the high degree of tunability position them as compelling building blocks for both compact quantum-enabled devices and classical optoelectronics. This paper offers a comprehensive review of recent advancements in the understanding and manipulation of twisted van der Waals structures and presents a survey of the state-of-the-art research on moiré superlattices, encompassing interdisciplinary interests. It delves into fundamental theories, synthesis and fabrication, and visualization techniques, and the wide range of novel physical phenomena exhibited by these structures, with a focus on their potential for practical device integration in applications ranging from quantum information to biosensors, and including classical optoelectronics such as modulators, light emitting diodes, lasers, and photodetectors. It highlights the unique ability of moiré superlattices to connect multiple disciplines, covering chemistry, electronics, optics, photonics, magnetism, topological and quantum physics. This comprehensive review provides a valuable resource for researchers interested in moiré superlattices, shedding light on their fundamental characteristics and their potential for transformative applications in various fields.

Manipulating chiral photon generation from plasmonic nanocavity-emitter hybrid systems: from weak to strong coupling

By confining light into a deep subwavelength scale to match the characteristic dimension of quantum emitters, plasmonic nanocavities can effectively imprint the light emission with unique properties in terms of intensity, directionality, as well as polarization. In this vein, achiral quantum emitters can generate chiral photons through coupling with plasmonic nanocavities with either intrinsic or extrinsic chirality. As an important metric for the chiral-photon purity, the degree of circular polarization (DCP) is usually tuned by various scattered factors such as the nanocavity design, the emitter type, and the coupling strategy. The physical mechanisms of the chiral photon generation, especially when plasmons and emitters step into the strong coupling regime, are less explored. In this paper, we extended the coupled-oscillator and Jaynes-Cummings models to their chiral fashion to account for the above factors within a single theoretical framework and investigated the chiroptical properties of a plasmonic nanocavity-emitter hybrid system from weak to strong coupling. It was demonstrated that both the circular differential scattering and prominent scattering DCP rely on the intrinsic chirality generated by breaking the mirror symmetry with the emitter, and is thereby tunable by the coupling strength. However, the luminescence DCP (as high as 87 %) is closely related to the extrinsic chirality of the bare nanocavity and independent of the coupling strength. The results thus reveal two different physical mechanisms of generating chiral photons in scattering and luminescence. Our findings provide a theoretical guideline for designing chiral photon devices and contribute to the understanding of chiral plasmon-emitter interaction.

Metasurface-Based Hybrid Optical Cavities for Chiral Sensing

Quantum metasurfaces, i.e., two-dimensional subwavelength arrays of quantum emitters, can be employed as mirrors towards the design of hybrid cavities, where the optical response is given by the interplay of a cavity-confined field and the surface modes supported by the arrays. We show that stacked layers of quantum metasurfaces with orthogonal dipole orientation can serve as helicity-preserving cavities. These structures exhibit ultranarrow resonances and can enhance the intensity of the incoming field by orders of magnitude, while simultaneously preserving the handedness of the field circulating inside the resonator, as opposed to conventional cavities. The rapid phase shift in the cavity transmission around the resonance can be exploited for the sensitive detection of chiral scatterers passing through the cavity. We discuss possible applications of these resonators as sensors for the discrimination of chiral molecules. Our approach describes a new way of chiral sensing via the measurement of particle-induced phase shifts.

Theory predicts 2D chiral polaritons based on achiral Fabry-Pérot cavities using apparent circular dichroism

Realizing polariton states with high levels of chirality offers exciting prospects for quantum information, sensing, and lasing applications. Such chirality must emanate from either the involved optical resonators or the quantum emitters. Here, we theoretically demonstrate a rare opportunity for realizing polaritons with so-called 2D chirality by strong coupling of the optical modes of (high finesse) achiral Fabry-Pérot cavities with samples exhibiting "apparent circular dichroism" (ACD). ACD is a phenomenon resulting from an interference between linear birefringence and dichroic interactions. By introducing a quantum electrodynamical theory of ACD, we identify the design rules based on which 2D chiral polaritons can be produced, and their chirality can be optimized.

Polaritonic linewidth asymmetry in the strong and ultrastrong coupling regime

The intriguing properties of polaritons resulting from strong and ultrastrong light-matter coupling have been extensively investigated. However, most research has focused on spectroscopic characteristics of polaritons, such as their eigenfrequencies and Rabi splitting. Here, we study the decay rates of a plasmon-microcavity system in the strong and ultrastrong coupling regimes experimentally and numerically. We use a classical scattering matrix approach, approximating our plasmonic system with an effective Lorentz model, to obtain the decay rates through the imaginary part of the complex quasinormal mode eigenfrequencies. Our classical model automatically includes all the interaction terms necessary to account for ultrastrong coupling without dealing with the rotating-wave approximation and the diamagnetic term. We find an asymmetry in polaritonic decay rates, which deviate from the expected average of the uncoupled system's decay rates at zero detuning. Although this phenomenon has been previously observed in exciton-polaritons and attributed to their disorder, we observe it even in our homogeneous system. As the coupling strength of the plasmon-microcavity system increases, the asymmetry also increases and can become so significant that the lower (upper) polariton decay rate reduction (increase) goes beyond the uncoupled decay rates, γ - < γ 0,c < γ +. Furthermore, our findings demonstrate that polaritonic linewidth asymmetry is a generic phenomenon that persists even in the case of bulk polaritons.