Unidirectional coupling of a quantum emitter to a subwavelength grating waveguide with engineered stationary inflection point

Abstract: In this work, we propose an approach for the design of a waveguide structure that allows for efficient and highly asymmetric coupling of the quantum sources with circularly polarized transition dipole moments to the guided mode of the structure. The approach is based on the mixing of the two quasi-degenerate modes of a periodic waveguide with an auxiliary single-mode waveguide leading to the formation of the dispersion with a stationary inflection point and consequently to the high coupling efficiency of this mode with a dipole source. We show that the distribution of the field polarization inside the waveguide is relatively homogeneous maintaining the circular polarization in a large area. Consequently, this leads to a high degree of tolerance of the coupling asymmetry and strength to the position of the quantum emitter. We believe, that our results will extend the variety of designs of the efficient chiral nanophotonic interfaces based on planar semiconductor nanostructures.