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  • Open Access

Enantiomer selectivity and energy transfer in imperfect chiral cavities

David Dams*

Carsten Rockstuhl

  • *Contact author: david.dams@kit.edu
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Phys. Rev. A 112, 033707 – Published 10 September, 2025

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/p4dp-byb8

Abstract

Chiral polaritonics offers promising opportunities to selectively manipulate molecular species based on their handedness by harnessing unique interaction pathways offered by strong coupling in cavity QED. While significant progress has been made in understanding the fundamental mechanisms of enantiomer selectivity, many existing studies focus on perfectly chiral cavities that contain only one type of enantiomer. Here, we investigate a scenario of imperfect cavities containing varying mixtures of enantiomers. Using a generalized Hopfield-type model, we systematically explore how the degree of enantiomeric mixing and cavity imperfections affect chiral selectivity. Our analysis includes both an examination of the cavity's eigenmode structure and a quantitative assessment of differential energy transfer into specific enantiomeric species. We demonstrate that both cavity imperfections and the presence of enantiomer mixtures profoundly modify the polaritonic dispersion. We also highlight that pushing the system into the deep strong coupling regime—by increasing molecular concentration—can decrease the efficiency of energy transfer to matter modes. These findings emphasize that precise cavity design and detailed consideration of enantiomeric composition are essential for achieving optimal chiral selectivity in practical cavity QED systems.

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Phys. Rev. A 112, 033707– Published 10 September, 2025
  • Received 16 June 2025
  • Accepted 27 August 2025
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Published by the American Physical Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. Further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the published article's title, journal citation, and DOI.

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