Tabletop Tunable Chiral Photonic Emitter.

Abstract

The increasing interest in chiral light stems from its spiral trajectory along the propagation direction, facilitating the interaction between different polarization states of light and matter. Despite tremendous achievements in chiral light-related research, the generation and control of chiral pulses have presented enduring challenges, especially at the terahertz and ultraviolet spectral ranges, due to the lack of suitable optical elements for effective pulse manipulation. Conventionally, chiral light can be obtained from intricate optical systems, by an external magnetic field, or by metamaterials, which necessitate sophisticated optical configurations. Here, leveraging the high harmonic generation process, we propose a versatile tunable chiral emitter, composed of only two planar Weyl semimetals slabs, addressing the challenges in both spectral ranges. Our results open the way to a compact tunable chiral emitter platform in both terahertz and ultra-violet frequency ranges. This advancement holds the potential to serve as the cornerstone for integrated chiral photonics.