Giant superchiral field at merged bound states in the continuum

Abstract

Superchiral field is highly important for ultrasensitive detection of chiral objects and has been intensively explored. Despite the progress, the construction of electromagnetic field in achiral nanostructures with giant chirality (C) is fundamentally restricted. Here, we demonstrate a novel approach to construct superchiral field in achiral dielectric metasurfaces. Due to the quantum spin-hall effect, each symmetry-protected bound state in the continuum (BIC) exhibits the ability to support a superchiral field in vicinity of \Gamma point. By merging two BICs with orthogonal polarizations, all the criteria for a superchiral field are satisfied and the dramatic enhancement of chirality becomes more robust. Using typical photonic crystal slabs, we have produced a superchiral field with enhancement factor (C/C_CPL) orders of magnitude higher than state-of-the-art in nanostructures. By further introducing active chiral medium, a chiral mode splitting associated with giant enhancement of circular dichroism (CD) has been formed by the chiral light-matter interaction.