Transverse Chiral Optical Forces by Chiral Surface Plasmon Polaritons

Abstract

Recently the new concepts of transverse spin angular momentum and Belinfante spin momentum of evanescent waves have drawn considerable attention. Here, we investigate these novel physical properties of electromagnetic fields in the context of locally excited surface plasmon polaritons. We demonstrate, both analytically and numerically, that locally excited surface plasmon polaritons possess transverse spin angular momentum and Belinfante momentum with rich and non-trivial characteristics. We also show that the transverse spin angular momentum of locally excited surface plasmon polaritons leads to the emergence of transverse chiral forces in opposite directions for chiral objects of different handedness. The magnitude of such a transverse force is comparable to the optical gradient force and scattering forces. This finding may pave the way for realization of optical separation of chiral biomolecules.