- Letter
Chiral discrimination in helicity-preserving Fabry-Pérot cavities
Phys. Rev. A 107, L021501 – Published 21 February, 2023Erratum Phys. Rev. A 108, 069902 (2023)
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevA.107.L021501
Abstract
We theoretically study circular dichroism of chiral molecules embedded inside a helicity-preserving Fabry-Pérot cavity. We find an increase of the intrinsic chiroptical response of the molecules by 2 orders of magnitude and report the first clear signature of chiral cavity polaritons upon entering the regime of strong light-matter coupling. We study a cavity design based on two dielectric photonic crystal mirrors acting, in a narrow frequency range, as efficient polarization cross-converters in transmission for one polarization and almost perfect reflectors for the other polarization. We show that a Pasteur medium hosted inside such a cavity can couple efficiently to both the outside of the cavity and to the helicity-preserving mode, inheriting an enhanced chiral character. We expect such a device to be useful in the future to design ultrasensitive chiral sensors for optics and stereochemistry.
