Local versus bulk circular dichroism enhancement by achiral all-dielectric nanoresonators

Abstract: Large optical chirality in the vicinity of achiral high index dielectric nanostructures has been recently demonstrated as useful means of enhancing molecular circular dichroism. We theoretically study the spatial dependence of optical chirality enhancement in the vicinity of high index dielectric nanodisks and highlight its importance for the design of nanophotonic platforms for circular dichroism enhancement. Using a T-matrix framework, we demonstrate that depending on disk aspect ratio chirality is enhanced preferentially along different directions. We employ various statistical procedures (including surface, volume and orientation averaging) that are necessary to predict the enhancement of chiroptical effects and show that optimal properties of a nanostructure depend substantially on whether spatial maximum or average chirality enhancement is sought after. Similarly, the optimal choice of the nanostructure is influenced by the presence of substrate, which limits the space available to be occupied by analyte molecules and impacts the optical chirality in the vicinity of the nanostructure.