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Infrared photodetector

Geometry speaks out

Nature Photonics volume 17, pages 134–135 (2023)Cite this article

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The near-field chirality of a single-symmetry achiral object enables polarization-dependent unidirectional photocurrent generation, and the vectorial output paves a way for a new family of geometric photodetectors.

Chirality is a geometrical feature of an object that cannot be superimposed on its mirror image with any rotation or translation. The mirror symmetries of a chiral molecule are specified as enantiomers. The non-symmetrical, differential, optical absorption of circularly polarized light (CPL) of chiral molecules, defined as circular dichroism (CD), allows us either to unveil the handedness of these molecules or for known molecules to determine the circularity of the incident light1. However, the optical activity of natural chiral substances is very low, unlike their artificial counterparts, chiral nanostructures, which exhibit a strong chiroptical response thanks to optical resonances2,3,4. Hence, artificially designed chiral structures and metasurfaces attract high interest, for example, for the detection of chiral (circularly polarized) light. Detection of CPL has great importance in various technological applications, such as in the drug industry and biosensing5,6.

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Fig. 1: Circularly polarized light detection.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Fundamental and Frontier Sciences, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu, China

    Artur Movsesyan & Zhiming Wang

  2. Department of Physics and Astronomy and the Nanoscale & Quantum Phenomena Institute, Ohio University, Athens, OH, USA

    Artur Movsesyan

Authors
  1. Artur Movsesyan
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  2. Zhiming Wang
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Correspondence to Zhiming Wang.

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Movsesyan, A., Wang, Z. Geometry speaks out. Nat. Photon. 17, 134–135 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41566-022-01149-x

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41566-022-01149-x

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