Twist Defect in Chiral Photonic Structures

We demonstrate that twisting one part of a chiral photonic structure about its helical axis produces a single circularly polarized localized mode that gives rise to an anomalous crossover in propagation. Up to a crossover thickness, this defect results in a peak in transmission and exponential scaling of the linewidth for a circularly polarized wave with the same handedness as structure. Above the crossover, however, the linewidth saturates and the defect mode can be excited only by the oppositely polarized wave, resulting in a peak in reflection instead of transmission.