Nanoscale chiral valley-photon interface through optical spin-orbit coupling

Abstract

Nanoscale chiral valley-photon interface Occupation of different valleys within the band structure of some materials can be used to encode information. That information is typically encoded in terms of the chirality or polarization of emitted photons. Gong et al. combined a plasmonic silver nanowire with a flake of the transition metal dichalcogenide WS 2 to form a nanophotonic platform for the transfer of solid-state spin into optical information over mesoscopic distances. The direction of light emission from the nanowire was strongly dependent on the spin-orbit coupling of light and the WS2 layer. Such a highly efficient interface should prove useful for developing valleytronics into a practical on-chip technology. Science , this issue p. 443