Janus Bound States in the Continuum with Asymmetric Topological Charges and Intrinsic Chirality

Abstract

We propose a novel topological defect called Janus bound states in the continuum (BICs), featuring asymmetric topological charges in upward and downward radiation channels. Our approach involves a photonic crystal slab (PCS) that initially exhibits both out-of-plane and in-plane mirror symmetry, and this PCS possesses one BIC at the $\Gamma$ point and two BICs off the $\Gamma$ point. By introducing perturbations that break the out-of-plane mirror symmetry, the two off-$\Gamma$ BICs decompose into four circularly polarized states (C points) with identical topological charges. Then, we selectively manipulate the four C points associated with downward radiation channel to converge at the at-$\Gamma$ BIC, forming a Janus BIC with Janus topological charges. By further introducing in-plane mirror symmetry perturbation, we can bring two of the C points with the same handedness and identical topological charges for upward radiation to merge into the Janus BIC. This process results in a Janus chiral BIC which exhibits large intrinsic chirality and an infinite Q factor. Janus BICs can induce distinct Pancharatnam-Berry phase singularities in momentum space for different incident channels, providing a new approach to control optical angular momentum. Janus chiral BICs hold promise in enhancing direction-dependent and spin-dependent asymmetric light-matter interaction, opening new pathways for improving chirality-dependent operation for on-chip devices