The super-chirality of vector twisted light

Abstract

Vector vortex light of topological order m arises as a superposition of two twisted modes with phase functions e±imϕ (with ϕ the azimuthal variable) and circular polarisations (σ=∓1). We demonstrate that when m is sufficiently large these modes exhibit enhanced helicity densities when compared with the equivalent circularly-polarised Gaussian modes. The enhancement stems from the presence of longitudinal field components which become significant even for moderate beam widths. The super-chirality of light-matter interactions enabled by such modes suggests a high degree of enantioselectivity, surpassing conventional techniques for the chiral selection, so promising useful applications.

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