Observation of intrinsic chiral bound states in the continuum

Yang Chen, Huachun Deng, Xinbo Sha, Weijin Chen, Ruize Wang, Yu-Hang Chen, Dong Wu, Jiaru Chu, Yuri S. Kivshar, Shumin Xiao () and Cheng-Wei Qiu ()
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Yang Chen: University of Science and Technology of China
Huachun Deng: Harbin Institute of Technology
Xinbo Sha: Harbin Institute of Technology
Weijin Chen: National University of Singapore
Ruize Wang: University of Science and Technology of China
Yu-Hang Chen: University of Science and Technology of China
Dong Wu: University of Science and Technology of China
Jiaru Chu: University of Science and Technology of China
Yuri S. Kivshar: Australian National University
Shumin Xiao: Harbin Institute of Technology
Cheng-Wei Qiu: National University of Singapore

Nature, 2023, vol. 613, issue 7944, 474-478

Abstract: Abstract Photons with spin angular momentum possess intrinsic chirality, which underpins many phenomena including nonlinear optics1, quantum optics2, topological photonics3 and chiroptics4. Intrinsic chirality is weak in natural materials, and recent theoretical proposals5–7 aimed to enlarge circular dichroism by resonant metasurfaces supporting bound states in the continuum that enhance substantially chiral light–matter interactions. Those insightful works resort to three-dimensional sophisticated geometries, which are too challenging to be realized for optical frequencies8. Therefore, most of the experimental attempts9–11 showing strong circular dichroism rely on false/extrinsic chirality by using either oblique incidence9,10 or structural anisotropy11. Here we report on the experimental realization of true/intrinsic chiral response with resonant metasurfaces in which the engineered slant geometry breaks both in-plane and out-of-plane symmetries. Our result marks, to our knowledge, the first observation of intrinsic chiral bound states in the continuum with near-unity circular dichroism of 0.93 and a high quality factor exceeding 2,663 for visible frequencies. Our chiral metasurfaces may lead to a plethora of applications in chiral light sources and detectors, chiral sensing, valleytronics and asymmetric photocatalysis.

Date: 2023
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DOI: 10.1038/s41586-022-05467-6

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