Related Experiment Video
Updated: Feb 9, 2026
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Assembly of Gold Nanorods into Chiral Plasmonic Metamolecules Using DNA Origami Templates
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Second-Harmonic Generation Optical Rotation Solely Attributable to Chirality in Plasmonic Metasurfaces
Joel T Collins1, David C Hooper1, Andrew G Mark2
1Centre for Photonics and Photonic Materials, and Centre for Nanoscience and Nanotechnology, Department of Physics , University of Bath , Bath , BA2 7AY , United Kingdom.
ACS Nano
|June 1, 2018
Summary
Chiral plasmonic metamaterials exhibit large optical rotation effects in second-harmonic generation (SHG-OR). This study demonstrates SHG-OR is invariant to sample rotation, offering new control over chiroptical properties.
Area of Science:
- Plasmonics
- Metamaterials
- Nonlinear Optics
Background:
- Chiral plasmonic nanostructures manipulate light polarization, causing chiroptical effects like circular dichroism (CD) and optical rotation (OR).
- Nonlinear effects, such as second-harmonic generation (SHG-CD and SHG-OR), are stronger and sensitive to symmetry.
- Achiral structures can exhibit optical rotation if birefringent due to anisotropy, often dependent on orientation.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate large second-harmonic generation optical rotation (SHG-OR) in anisotropic helical metamaterials.
- To understand the relationship between intrinsic chirality, structural anisotropy, and SHG-OR.
- To explore controlling chiroptical properties by tuning nanostructure geometry.
Main Methods:
- Fabrication of highly anisotropic helical metamaterials.
- Measurement of second-harmonic generation optical rotation (SHG-OR) and intensity.
- Analysis of the dependence of SHG-OR on structural anisotropy and sample orientation.
Main Results:
- Observed a large SHG-OR of ±45° due to intrinsic chirality in the helical metamaterial.
- Found SHG intensity strongly correlates with structural anisotropy.
- Demonstrated that the angle of SHG-OR is invariant under sample rotation, unlike effects from pure anisotropy.
Conclusions:
- Intrinsic chirality in anisotropic metamaterials can lead to significant and orientation-invariant SHG-OR.
- The interplay between anisotropy, chirality, and geometry offers tunable control over chiroptical properties.
- This work advances the design of plasmonic metamaterials for advanced optical applications.
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