Chiral emission into nanophotonic resonators

Abstract

Chiral emission, where the handedness of a transition dipole determines the direction in which a photon is emitted, has recently been observed from atoms and quantum dots coupled to nanophotonic waveguides. Here, we consider the case of chiral light-matter interactions in resonant nanophotonic structures, deriving closed-form expressions for the fundamental quantum electrodynamic quantities that describe these interactions. We show how parameters such as the position dependent, directional Purcell factors and mode volume can be calculated using computationally efficient two dimensional eigenmode simulations. As an example, we calculate these quantities for a prototypical ring resonator with a geometric footprint of only 4.5~$\mu$m$^2$, showing that perfect directionality with a simultaneous Purcell enhancement upwards of 400 are possible. The ability to determine these fundamental properties of nanophotonic chiral interfaces is crucial if they are to form elements of quantum circuits and networks.