Abstract
Plasmonic fields are usually considered nonchiral because of the transverse magnetic polarization of surface plasmon modes. We, however, show here that an optical lattice created from the intersection of two coherent surface plasmons propagating on a smooth metal film can generate optical chirality in the interfering near field. We reveal in particular the emergence of plasmonic potentials relevant to the generation of near-field chiral forces. This draws promising perspectives for performing enantiomeric separation schemes within the near field.
- Received 19 April 2014
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevA.90.023842
©2014 American Physical Society