Chiral near fields generated from plasmonic lattices

Abstract

Plasmonic fields are usually considered non-chiral because of the transverse magnetic polarization of surface plasmon modes. We however show here that an optical lattice created from the intersection of two coherent surface plasmons propagating on a smooth metal film can generate optical chirality in the interfering near field. We reveal in particular the emergence of plasmonic potentials relevant to the generation of near-field chiral forces. This draws promising perspectives for performing enantiomeric separation schemes within the near field.

5 pages, 3 figures

References in corpus (10)

• Extraordinary momentum and spin in evanescent waves
• Lateral Optical Force On Chiral Particles Near a Surface
• Does a Surface Polariton Have Spin?
• Characterizing optical chirality
• Mechanical separation of chiral dipoles by chiral light
• Chirality and angular momentum in optical radiation
• Realizing optical pulling force using chirality
• Transverse spinning of a sphere in a plasmonic field
• Optical helicity of interfering waves
• Slant-gap plasmonic nanoantenna for optical chirality enhancement

Cited by in corpus (8)

• The Optical Chirality Flux as a Useful Far-Field Probe of Chiral Near Fields
• The ubiquitous photonic wheel
• Plasmonic lateral forces on chiral spheres
• Enhanced Electromagnetic Chirality by Locally Excited Surface Plasmon Polaritons
• Chiral Rotational Spectroscopy
• Chiral force of guided light on an atom
• Generation of Optical Chirality Patterns with Plane Waves, Evanescent Waves and Surface Plasmon Waves
• Chiral thermodynamics in tailored chiral optical environments