Chiral light detection with centrosymmetric-metamaterial-assisted valleytronics
Source abstract
Abstract
The full-range, high-sensitivity and integratable detection of circularly polarized light (CPL) is critically important for quantum information processing, advanced imaging systems and optical sensing technologies. However, mainstream CPL detectors rely on chiral absorptive materials, and thus suffer from limited response wavelengths, low responsivity and poor discrimination ratios. Here we present a chiral light detector by utilizing valley materials to observe the spin angular momentum carried by chiral light. Delicately designed centrosymmetric metamaterials that can preserve the sign of optical spin angular momentum and greatly enhance its intensity in the near field are harnessed as a medium to inject polarized electrons into valley materials, which are then detected by the valley Hall effect. This enables high-sensitivity infrared CPL detection at room temperature by valleytronic transistors, and the detection wavelength is extended to the infrared. This approach opens pathways for chiral light detection and provides insights into potential applications of valleytronics in optoelectronic sensing.
Source: europepmc · Quality: candidate unverified · Source record ↗
Research context
OpenAlex topics: Metamaterials and Metasurfaces Applications · 2D Materials and Applications · Plasmonic and Surface Plasmon Research
SciVX discovery tags are terminology-based. OpenAlex topics are source-provided classifications.
References (51)
Show source-provided references
1. Chen, Y. et al. Multidimensional nanoscopic chiroptics. Nat. Rev. Phys. 4, 113–124 (2022).10.1038/s42254-021-00391-6 ↗
2. Long, G. et al. Spin control in reduced-dimensional chiral perovskites. Nat. Photonics 12, 528–533 (2018).10.1038/s41566-018-0220-6 ↗
3. Moloney, M. P., Govan, J., Loudon, A., Mukhina, M. & Gun’ko, Y. K. Preparation of chiral quantum dots. Nat. Protoc. 10, 558–573 (2015).10.1038/nprot.2015.028 ↗
4. Liu, T. et al. Chiral plasmonic nanocrystals for generation of hot electrons: toward polarization-sensitive photochemistry. Nano Lett. 19, 1395–1407 (2019).10.1021/acs.nanolett.8b05179 ↗
5. Ishii, A. & Miyasaka, T. Direct detection of circular polarized light in helical 1D perovskite-based photodiode. Sci. Adv. 6, eabd3274 (2020).10.1126/sciadv.abd3274 ↗
6. Chen, C. et al. Circularly polarized light detection using chiral hybrid perovskite. Nat. Commun. 10, 1927 (2019).10.1038/s41467-019-09942-z ↗
7. Yang, Y., Da Costa, R. C., Fuchter, M. J. & Campbell, A. J. Circularly polarized light detection by a chiral organic semiconductor transistor. Nat. Photonics 7, 634–638 (2013).10.1038/nphoton.2013.176 ↗
8. Zhang, L. et al. π-Extended perylene diimide double-heterohelicenes as ambipolar organic semiconductors for broadband circularly polarized light detection. Nat. Commun. 12, 142 (2021).10.1038/s41467-020-20390-y ↗
9. Mak, K. F., He, K., Shan, J. & Heinz, T. F. Control of valley polarization in monolayer MoS2 by optical helicity. Nat. Nanotechnol. 7, 494–498 (2012).10.1038/nnano.2012.96 ↗
10. Mak, K. F., McGill, K. L., Park, J. & McEuen, P. L. Te valley Hall efect in MoS2 transistors. Science 344, 1489–1492 (2014).10.1126/science.1250140 ↗
11. Cao, T. et al. Valley-selective circular dichroism of monolayer molybdenum disulphide. Nat. Commun. 3, 887 (2012).10.1038/ncomms1882 ↗
12. Schaibley, J. R. et al. Valleytronics in 2D materials. Nat. Rev. Mater. 1, 16055 (2016).10.1038/natrevmats.2016.55 ↗
13. Xiao, D., Liu, G.-B., Feng, W., Xu, X. & Yao, W. Coupled spin and valley physics in monolayers of MoS2 and other group-VI dichalcogenides. Phys. Rev. Lett. 108, 196802 (2012).10.1103/PhysRevLett.108.196802 ↗
14. Liu, W. et al. Generation of helical topological exciton-polaritons. Science 370, 600–604 (2020).10.1126/science.abc4975 ↗
15. Seifert, P. et al. Spin Hall photoconductance in a three-dimensional topological insulator at room temperature. Nat. Commun. 9, 331 (2018).10.1038/s41467-017-02671-1 ↗
16. Luo, Y. K. et al. Opto-valleytronic spin injection in monolayer MoS2/few-layer graphene hybrid spin valves. Nano Lett. 17, 3877–3883 (2017).10.1021/acs.nanolett.7b01393 ↗
17. Jiang, C. et al. A room-temperature gate-tunable bipolar valley Hall effect in molybdenum disulfide/tungsten diselenide heterostructures. Nat. Electron. 5, 23–27 (2022).10.1038/s41928-021-00686-7 ↗
18. Ubrig, N. et al. Microscopic origin of the valley Hall effect in transition metal dichalcogenides revealed by wavelength-dependent mapping. Nano Lett. 17, 5719–5725 (2017).10.1021/acs.nanolett.7b02666 ↗
19. Tang, Y. & Cohen, A. E. Enhanced enantioselectivity in excitation of chiral molecules by superchiral light. Science 332, 333–336 (2011).10.1126/science.1202817 ↗
20. Li, W. et al. Circularly polarized light detection with hot electrons in chiral plasmonic metamaterials. Nat. Commun. 6, 8379 (2015).10.1038/ncomms9379 ↗
21. Dorrah, A. H., Rubin, N. A., Zaidi, A., Tamagnone, M. & Capasso, F. Metamaterial optics for on-demand polarization transformations along the optical path. Nat. Photonics 15, 287–296 (2021).10.1038/s41566-020-00750-2 ↗
22. Pors, A., Nielsen, M. G. & Bozhevolnyi, S. I. Plasmonic metagratings for simultaneous determination of Stokes parameters. Optica 2, 716 (2015).10.1364/OPTICA.2.000716 ↗
23. Afshinmanesh, F., White, J. S., Cai, W. & Brongersma, M. L. Measurement of the polarization state of light using an integrated plasmonic polarimeter. Nanophotonics 1, 125–129 (2012).10.1515/nanoph-2012-0004 ↗
24. Li, L. et al. Monolithic full-Stokes near-infrared polarimetry with chiral plasmonic metamaterial integrated graphene–silicon photodetector. ACS Nano. 14, 16634–16642 (2020).10.1021/acsnano.0c00724 ↗
25. Lu, F., Lee, J., Jiang, A., Jung, S. & Belkin, M. A. Thermopile detector of light ellipticity. Nat. Commun. 7, 12994 (2016).10.1038/ncomms12994 ↗
26. Khanikaev, A. B. et al. Experimental demonstration of the microscopic origin of circular dichroism in two-dimensional metamaterials. Nat. Commun. 7, 12045 (2016).10.1038/ncomms12045 ↗
27. Li, Z. et al. Tailoring MoS2 valley‐polarized photoluminescence with super chiral near‐field. Adv. Mater. 30, 1801908 (2018).10.1002/adma.201801908 ↗
28. Wen, T. et al. Steering valley-polarized emission of monolayer MoS2 sandwiched in plasmonic antennas. Sci. Adv. 6, eaao0019 (2020).10.1126/sciadv.aao0019 ↗
29. Hu, G. et al. Coherent steering of nonlinear chiral valley photons with a synthetic Au–WS2 metamaterial. Nat. Photonics 13, 467–472 (2019).10.1038/s41566-019-0399-1 ↗
30. Li, L. et al. Room-temperature valleytronic transistor. Nat. Nanotechnol. 15, 743–749 (2020).10.1038/s41565-020-0727-0 ↗
31. Cameron, R. P., Barnett, S. M. & Yao, A. M. Optical helicity, optical spin and related quantities in electromagnetic theory. New J. Phys. 14, 053050 (2012).10.1088/1367-2630/14/5/053050 ↗
32. Wan, L. et al. Sensitive near-infrared circularly polarized light detection via non-fullerene acceptor blends. Nat. Photonics 17, 649–655 (2023).10.1038/s41566-023-01230-z ↗
33. Yin, J. et al. Tunable and giant valley-selective Hall effect in gapped bilayer graphene. Science 375, 1398–1402 (2022).10.1126/science.abl4266 ↗
34. Gorbachev, R. V. et al. Detecting topological currents in graphene superlattices. Science 346, 448–451 (2014).10.1126/science.1254966 ↗
35. Scuri, G. et al. Electrically tunable valley dynamics in twisted WSe2/ WSe2 bilayers. Phys. Rev. Lett. 124, 217403 (2020).10.1103/PhysRevLett.124.217403 ↗
36. Li, J. et al. A valley valve and electron beam splitter. Science 362, 1149–1152 (2018).10.1126/science.aao5989 ↗
37. Nieto-Vesperinas, M. & Xu, X. Reactive helicity and reactive power in nanoscale optics: Evanescent waves. Kerker conditions. Optical theorems and reactive dichroism. Phys. Rev. Res. 3, 043080 (2021).10.1103/PhysRevResearch.3.043080 ↗
38. Lee, H.-I. Near-Field behaviors of internal energy flows of free-space electromagnetic waves induced by electric point dipoles. Optics 3, 313–337 (2022).10.3390/opt3030029 ↗
39. Pan, D. & Xu, H. Polarizing free electrons in optical near fields. Phys. Rev. Lett. 130, 186901 (2023).10.1103/PhysRevLett.130.186901 ↗
40. Feis, J. et al. Helicity-preserving optical cavity modes for enhanced sensing of chiral molecules. Phys. Rev. Lett. 124, 033201 (2020).10.1103/PhysRevLett.124.033201 ↗
41. Mohammadi, E. et al. Nanophotonic platforms for enhanced chiral sensing. ACS Photonics 5, 2669–2675 (2018).10.1021/acsphotonics.8b00270 ↗
42. Hong, T. et al. Plasmonic hot electron induced photocurrent response at MoS2–metal junctions. ACS Nano 9, 5357–5363 (2015).10.1021/acsnano.5b01065 ↗
43. Sun, F. et al. Enhancing and broadening the photoresponse of monolayer MoS2 based on Au nanoslit array. ACS Appl. Mater. Interfaces 14, 26245–26254 (2022).10.1021/acsami.2c05038 ↗
44. Howell, S. L. et al. Investigation of band-ofsets at monolayer–multilayer MoS2 junctions by scanning photocurrent microscopy. Nano Lett. 15, 2278–2284 (2015).10.1021/nl504311p ↗
45. Shreiner, R., Hao, K., Butcher, A. & High, A. A. Electrically controllable chirality in a nanophotonic interface with a two-dimensional semiconductor. Nat. Photonics 16, 330–336 (2022).10.1038/s41566-022-00971-7 ↗
46. Chen, H. et al. Gate controlled valley polarizer in bilayer graphene. Nat. Commun. 11, 1202 (2020).10.1038/s41467-020-15117-y ↗
47. Lee, J., Mak, K. F. & Shan, J. Electrical control of the valley Hall effect in bilayer MoS2 transistors. Nat. Nanotechnol. 11, 421–425 (2016).10.1038/nnano.2015.337 ↗
48. Zhu, B., Zeng, H., Dai, J., Gong, Z. & Cui, X. Anomalously robust valley polarization and valley coherence in bilayer WS2. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA 111, 11606–11611 (2014).10.1073/pnas.1406960111 ↗
49. Jones, A. M. et al. Spin–layer locking effects in optical orientation of exciton spin in bilayer WSe2. Nat. Phys. 10, 130–134 (2014).10.1038/nphys2848 ↗
50. Jiang, C. et al. Zeeman splitting via spin-valley-layer coupling in bilayer MoTe2. Nat. Commun. 8, 802 (2017).10.1038/s41467-017-00927-4 ↗
51. Fang, Y. J., Armin, A., Meredith, P. & Huang, J. S. Accurate characterization of next-generation thin-film photodetectors. Nat. Photonics 13, 1–4 (2019).10.1038/s41566-018-0288-z ↗