Bao Jiaxin, Liu Ning, Tian Hanwei, Wang Qiang, Cui Tiejun, Jiang Weixiang, Zhang Shuang, Cao Tun
School of Optoelectronic Engineering and Instrumentation Science, Dalian University of Technology, Dalian 116024, China.
State Key Laboratory of Millimeter Waves, School of Information Science and Engineering, Southeast University, Nanjing 210096, China.
Research (Wash D C). 2020 Feb 28;2020:7873581. doi: 10.34133/2020/7873581. eCollection 2020.
Chiral molecules that do not superimpose on their mirror images are the foundation of all life forms on earth. Chiral molecules exhibit chiroptical responses, i.e., they have different electromagnetic responses to light of different circular polarizations. However, chiroptical responses in natural materials, such as circular dichroism and optical rotation dispersion, are intrinsically small because the size of a chiral molecule is significantly shorter than the wavelength of electromagnetic wave. Conventional technology for enhancing chiroptical signal entails demanding requirements on precise alignment of the chiral molecules to certain nanostructures, which however only leads to a limited performance. Herein, we show a new approach towards enhancement of chiroptical effects through a Fabry-Pérot (FP) cavity formed by two handedness-preserving metamirrors operating in the GHz region. We experimentally show that the FP cavity resonator can enhance the optical activity of the chiral molecule by an order of magnitude. Our approach may pave the way towards state-of-the-art chiral sensing applications.
无法与自身镜像重合的手性分子是地球上所有生命形式的基础。手性分子表现出手性光学响应，即它们对不同圆偏振光具有不同的电磁响应。然而，天然材料中的手性光学响应，如圆二色性和旋光色散，本质上很小，因为手性分子的尺寸明显短于电磁波的波长。增强手性光学信号的传统技术对手性分子与某些纳米结构的精确排列有严格要求，但这只能带来有限的性能提升。在此，我们展示了一种通过由两个在吉赫兹频段工作的保持手性的超镜形成的法布里-珀罗（FP）腔来增强手性光学效应的新方法。我们通过实验表明，FP腔谐振器可将手性分子的光学活性提高一个数量级。我们的方法可能为先进的手性传感应用铺平道路。
