Chiral Light-Matter Interaction in Optical Resonators

Abstract

The Purcell effect explains the modification of the spontaneous decay rate of quantum emitters in a resonant cavity. For quantum emitters such as chiral molecules, however, the cavity modification of the spontaneous decay rate has been little known. Here we extend Purcell's work to the chiral light-matter interaction in optical resonators and find the differential spontaneous decay rate of chiral molecules coupled to left and right circularly polarized resonator modes. We determine the chiral Purcell factor, which characterizes the ability of optical resonators to enhance chiroptical signals, by the quality factor and the chiral mode volume of a resonator, representing, respectively, the temporal confinement of light and the spatial confinement of the helicity of light. We show that the chiral Purcell effect can be applied to chiroptical spectroscopy. Specifically, we propose a realistic scheme to achieve resonator enhanced chiroptical spectroscopy that uses the double fishnet structure as a nanoscale cuvette supporting the chiral Purcell effect.