The influence of chiral spherical particles on the radiation of optically active molecules

Abstract

Within the framework of nonrelativistic quantum electrodynamics, a theory of spontaneous emission of a chiral molecule located near a chiral (bi-isotropic) spherical particle is developed. It is shown that the structure of photons in the presence of chiral spherical particles differs significantly from the structure of usual transverse electric and transverse magnetic photons. Exact analytical expressions for a spontaneous emission decay rate of a chiral molecule with arbitrary electric and magnetic dipole moments of transition located near a chiral spherical particle with arbitrary parameters, are obtained and analyzed in detail. Simple asymptotes for the case of a nanoparticle are obtained. Substantial influence of even small chirality on a sphere made from dielectric or double negative metamaterial is found. It is shown that by using chiral spherical particles it is possible to effectively control the radiation of a given enantiomer of optically active molecules. © IOP Publishing Ltd and Deutsche Physikalische Gesellschaft.