Tilting light's polarization plane to spatially separate the ultrafast nonlinear response of chiral molecules
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Published version
Author(s)
Rego, Laura
Smirnova, Olga
Ayuso Molinero, David
Type
Journal Article
Abstract
Distinguishing between the left- and right-handed versions of a chiral molecule (enantiomers) is vital, but also inherently difficult. Traditional optical methods using elliptically/circularly polarized light rely on linear effects which arise beyond the electric-dipole approximation, posing major limitations for ultrafast spectroscopy. Here we show how to turn an ultrashort elliptical pulse into an efficient chiro-optical tool: by tilting its polarization plane towards its propagation direction. This forward tilt can be achieved by focusing the beam tightly, creating structured light which exhibits a nontrivial polarization pattern in space. Using state-of-the-art computational modelling, we show that our structured field realizes a near-field interferometer for efficient chiral recognition that separates the nonlinear optical response of left- and right-handed molecules in space. Our work provides a simple, yet highly efficient, way of spatially structuring the polarization of light to image molecular chirality, with extreme enantio-efficiency and on ultrafast time scales.
Date Issued
2023-07-01
Date Acceptance
2023-03-10
Citation
Nanophotonics, 2023, 12 (14), pp.2873-2879
ISSN
2192-8606
Publisher
De Gruyter
Start Page
2873
End Page
2879
Journal / Book Title
Nanophotonics
Volume
12
Issue
14
Copyright Statement
Open Access. © 2023 the author(s), published by De Gruyter. This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
License URL
Identifier
https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.1515/nanoph-2022-0802/html
Publication Status
Published
Date Publish Online
2023-04-11