Nanoscale Optical Addressing of Valley Pseudospins through Transverse Optical Spin.

Valley pseudospin has emerged as a good quantum number to encode information, analogous to spin in spintronics. Two-dimensional transition metal dichalcogenides (2D TMDCs) recently attracted enormous attention for their easy access to the valley pseudospin through valley-dependent optical transitions. Different ways have been reported to read out the valley pseudospin state. For practical applications, on-chip access to and manipulation of valley pseudospins is paramount, not only to read out but especially to initiate the valley pseudospin state. Here, we experimentally demonstrate the selective on-chip, optical near-field initiation of valley pseudospins at room temperature. We exploit a nanowire optical waveguide, such that the local transverse optical spin of its guided modes selectively excites a specific valley pseudospin. Furthermore, spin-momentum locking of the transverse optical spin enables us to flip valley pseudospins with the opposite propagation direction. Thus, we open up ways to realize integrated hybrid opto-valleytronic devices.

Direct observation of topological edge states in silicon photonic crystals: Spin, dispersion, and chiral routing.

Topological protection in photonics offers new prospects for guiding and manipulating classical and quantum information. The mechanism of spin-orbit coupling promises the emergence of edge states that are helical, exhibiting unidirectional propagation that is topologically protected against back scattering. We directly observe the topological states of a photonic analog of electronic materials exhibiting the quantum spin Hall effect, living at the interface between two silicon photonic crystals with different topological order. Through the far-field radiation that is inherent to the states' existence, we characterize their properties, including linear dispersion and low loss. We find that the edge state pseudospin is encoded in unique circular far-field polarization and linked to unidirectional propagation, thus revealing a signature of the underlying photonic spin-orbit coupling. We use this connection to selectively excite different edge states with polarized light and directly visualize their routing along sharp chiral waveguide junctions.

Nanoscale chiral valley-photon interface through optical spin-orbit coupling.

The emergence of two-dimensional transition metal dichalcogenide materials has sparked intense activity in valleytronics, as their valley information can be encoded and detected with the spin angular momentum of light. We demonstrate the valley-dependent directional coupling of light using a plasmonic nanowire-tungsten disulfide (WS2) layers system. We show that the valley pseudospin in WS2 couples to transverse optical spin of the same handedness with a directional coupling efficiency of 90 ± 1%. Our results provide a platform for controlling, detecting, and processing valley and spin information with precise optical control at the nanoscale.

The Origin and Limit of Asymmetric Transmission in Chiral Resonators.

We observe that the asymmetric transmission (AT) through photonic systems with a resonant chiral response is strongly related to the far-field properties of eigenmodes of the system. This understanding can be used to predict the AT for any resonant system from its complex eigenmodes. We find that the resonant chiral phenomenon of AT is related to, and is bounded by, the nonresonant scattering properties of the system. Using the principle of reciprocity, we determine a fundamental limit to the maximum AT possible for a single mode in any chiral resonator. We propose and follow a design route for a highly chiral dielectric photonic crystal structure that reaches this fundamental limit for AT.

Optical bistability of localized Josephson surface plasmons in cuprate superconductors.

Microparticles made of high-Tc cuprate superconductors are characterized by localized plasmonic excitations known as Josephson surface plasmons, whose electromagnetic response is intrinsically nonlinear, giving rise to yet unexplored optical phenomena. In this work bistability effects in the near-resonance excitation of Josephson surface plasmons of dipolar symmetry are investigated for spheroidal superconducting particles. The threshold for the incident intensity is estimated, and experimental probing strategies are discussed. The system can be of interest in view of terahertz light switching and detection.

Strong coupling between a dipole emitter and localized plasmons: enhancement by sharp silver tips.

In this work sharp silver nanotips are analyzed and proposed as useful plasmonic tools to reduce the threshold for the onset of strong coupling in the electromagnetic interaction of a point-like emitter with localized surface plasmons. If compared to similarly-sized spherical nanoparticles, conically-shaped nanoparticles turn out to be extremely useful to reduce the oscillator strength requirements for the emitting dipole, a reduction of the threshold by one sixth being obtained in a double cone configuration. Moreover the transition to the strong coupling regime is analyzed for several cone apertures, revealing a nonmonotonic behavior with the appearance of an optimal cone geometry. The emitted-light spectrum is obtained from the computation of the perturbative decay rate and photonic Lamb shift in the classical framework of the Discrete Dipole Approximation. This combined classical-quantum electrodynamics treatment is useful for the theoretical investigation on nonperturbative light-matter interactions involving complex shaped nanoparticles or aggregates.