Interaction of light carrying orbital angular momentum with a chiral dipolar scatterer

Wozniak P, De Leon I, Hoeflich K, Leuchs G, Banzer P (2019)

Publication Type: Journal article

Publication year: 2019

Journal

Optica Optical Society of America

Book Volume: 6

Pages Range: 961-965

Journal Issue: 8

DOI: 10.1364/OPTICA.6.000961

Abstract

The capability to distinguish the handedness of circularly polarized light is a well-known intrinsic property of a chiral nanostructure. It is a long-standing controversial debate, however, whether a chiral object can also sense the vorticity, or the orbital angular momentum (OAM), of a light field. Since OAM is a spatial property, it seems rather counter-intuitive that a point-like chiral object could be able to distinguish the sense of the wave-front of light carrying OAM. Here, we show that a dipolar chiral nanostructure is indeed capable of distinguishing the sign of the phase vortex of the incoming light beam. To this end, we take advantage of the conversion of the sign of OAM, carried by a linearly polarized Laguerre-Gaussian beam, into the sign of optical chirality upon tight focusing. Our study provides for a deeper insight into the discussion of chiral light-matter interactions and the respective role of OAM. (C) 2019 Optical Society of America under the terms of the OSA Open Access Publishing Agreement

Authors with CRIS profile

Gerhard Leuchs Lehrstuhl für Experimentalphysik (Optik) Peter Banzer Professur für Experimentalphysik

Involved external institutions

Tecnológico de Monterrey (ITESM) MX Mexico (MX) Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin für Materialien und Energie (HZB) DE Germany (DE) Max-Planck-Institut für die Physik des Lichts (MPL) / Max Planck Institute for the Science of Light DE Germany (DE)

How to cite

APA:

Wozniak, P., De Leon, I., Hoeflich, K., Leuchs, G., & Banzer, P. (2019). Interaction of light carrying orbital angular momentum with a chiral dipolar scatterer. Optica, 6(8), 961-965. https://dx.doi.org/10.1364/OPTICA.6.000961

MLA:

Wozniak, Pawel, et al. "Interaction of light carrying orbital angular momentum with a chiral dipolar scatterer." Optica 6.8 (2019): 961-965.

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