All-optical reconfigurable chiral meta-molecules

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates the experimental creation of all-optical reconfigurable chiral meta-molecules using colloidal particles, enhancing optical chirality for spectroscopy and providing models to understand molecular chirality.

Contribution

It introduces a novel method to reconfigure chiral meta-molecules optically using colloidal particles, advancing applications in spectroscopy and fundamental understanding.

Findings

Achieved all-optical reconfiguration of chiral meta-molecules.

Enhanced optical chirality suitable for surface-enhanced chiroptical spectroscopy.

Provided microscopic models for the origin of molecular chirality.

Abstract

Chirality is a ubiquitous phenomenon in the natural world. Many biomolecules without inversion symmetry such as amino acids and sugars are chiral molecules. Measuring and controlling molecular chirality at a high precision down to the atomic scale are highly desired in physics, chemistry, biology, and medicine, however, have remained challenging. Herein, we achieve all-optical reconfigurable chiral meta-molecules experimentally using metallic and dielectric colloidal particles as artificial atoms or building blocks to serve at least two purposes. One is that the on-demand meta-molecules with strongly enhanced optical chirality are well-suited as substrates for surface-enhanced chiroptical spectroscopy of chiral molecules and as active components in optofluidic and nanophotonic devices. The other is that the bottom-up-assembled colloidal meta-molecules provide microscopic models to better understand the origin of chirality in the actual atomic and molecular systems. Keywords: opto-thermoelectric tweezers; optical chirality; metamolecules; bottom-up assembly