Shaping Polaritons to Reshape Selection Rules

The discovery of orbital angular momentum (OAM) in photonics established a new degree of freedom by which to control not only the flow of light but also its interaction with matter. Here, we show that it is possible to use OAM carrying plasmon and phonon polaritons to engineer new selection rules in electronic systems, such as atoms, molecules, and artificial atoms (e.g. quantum dots), thus introducing a new degree of freedom for controlling once-forbidden transitions. This arises by granting OAM to polaritons whose short wavelength enables access to conventionally forbidden electronic transitions.