Gyrotropy of a metamolecule: wire on a torus

Sharing topology with numerous organic molecules, a wire helix bend into a torus gives a curious object with a gyrotropic behavior which is far from obvious. While a continuous constant current in opposite sections of the torus would create mutually cancelling contributions to its gyrotropic response, an array of tori can show strong circular dichroism linked to the excitation of standing current waves. Here we present the experimental study of optical activity in a chiral toroidal metamaterial and discuss its response in terms of multipole moments, including the elusive toroidal moment.