Chirality of optical vortex beams reflected from an air-chiral medium interface

Abstract

Chirality plays an important role in understanding of the chiral light-matter interaction. In this work, we study theoretically and numerically the chirality of optical vortex beams reflected from an air-chiral medium interface. A theoretical model that takes into full account the vectorial nature of electromagnetic fields is developed to describe the reflection of optical vortex beams at an interface between air and a chiral medium. Some numerical simulations are performed and discussed. The results show that the chirality of the reflected vortex beams can be well controlled by the relative chiral parameter of the medium and is significantly affected by the incidence angle, topological charge, and polarization state of the incident beam. Our results provide new, to the best of our knowledge, insights into the interactions between optical vortex beams with chiral matter, and may have potential application in optical chirality manipulation.