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Chirality

Chirality

Chirality is a term that describes the lack of mirror symmetry in an object. In other words, chiral objects cannot be superposed on their mirror images. For example, our feet are chiral, as the mirror image of the left foot, the right foot, cannot be superposed on the left foot.
Chiral objects exhibit a sense of handedness when they interact with another chiral object. For example, our left foot can only fit in the left shoe and not in the right shoe. Achiral objects — objects that have...

Chirality in Nature

Chirality in Nature

Chirality is the most intriguing yet essential facet of nature, governing life’s biochemical processes and precision. It can be observed from a snail shell pattern in a macroscopic world to an amino acid, the minutest building block of life. Most of the snails around the world have right-coiled shells because of the intrinsic chirality in their genes. All the amino acids present in the human body exist in an enantiomerically pure state, except for glycine - the sole achiral amino acid.

Properties of Enantiomers and Optical Activity

Properties of Enantiomers and Optical Activity

It is essential to understand the difference between chiral and achiral interactions and the implications thereof in optical activity and their applications. Just as our feet, which are chiral, interact uniquely with chiral objects, such as a pair of shoes, but identically with achiral socks, enantiomers of a molecule exhibit different properties only when they interact with other chiral media. An example of a significant implication from this facet is the phenomenon known as optical activity,...

Prochirality

Prochirality

The concept of prochirality leads to the nomenclature of the individual faces of a molecule and plays a crucial role in the enantioselective reaction. It is a concept where two or more achiral molecules react to produce chiral products. A typical process is the reaction of an achiral ketone to generate a chiral alcohol. Here, the achiral reactant reacts with an achiral reducing agent, sodium borohydride, to generate an equimolar mixture of the chiral enantiomers of the product. For example, an...

Molecules with Multiple Chiral Centers

Molecules with Multiple Chiral Centers

Molecules that possess multiple chiral centers can afford a large number of stereoisomers. For instance, while some molecules like 2-butanol have one chiral center, defined as a tetrahedral carbon atom with four different substituents attached, several molecules like butane-2,3-diol have multiple chiral centers. A simple formula to predict the number of stereoisomers possible for a molecule with n chiral centers is 2n. However, there can be a lower number where some of the stereoisomers are...

Confocal Fluorescence Microscopy

Confocal Fluorescence Microscopy

Confocal microscopy is an advanced microscopic technique. The prime advantage of the confocal microscope over other microscopy techniques is its ability to block the out-of-focus light from the illuminated samples using pinholes. It is widely used with fluorescence optics to obtain high-resolution, sharp contrast images. Unlike optical microscopes, confocal microscopes use a focused beam of light laser to scan the entire sample surface at different z-planes. These microscopes are, therefore,...

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Related Experiment Video

Updated: Oct 30, 2025

Demonstration of Equal-Intensity Beam Generation by Dielectric Metasurfaces

Demonstration of Equal-Intensity Beam Generation by Dielectric Metasurfaces

Published on: June 7, 2019

Chiroptical Metasurfaces: Principles, Classification, and Applications.

Joohoon Kim¹, Ahsan Sarwar Rana², Yeseul Kim¹

¹Department of Mechanical Engineering, Pohang University of Science and Technology, Pohang 37673, Korea.

Sensors (Basel, Switzerland)

|July 2, 2021

Summary

This summary is machine-generated.

Chiral metasurfaces enhance light-matter interactions for chiral sensing. This review covers their fundamentals, types, and applications in advanced optical devices.

Keywords:

chiral sensing chiroptical metamaterial chiroptical metasurface circular dichroism (CD)metahologram metalens metamaterial metasurface multifunctional metahologram multifunctional metalens multiplexing metahologram multiplexing metalens optical rotatory dispersion (ORD)sensing

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Demonstration of Spin-Multiplexed and Direction-Multiplexed All-Dielectric Visible Metaholograms

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Simulation, Fabrication and Characterization of THz Metamaterial Absorbers

Simulation, Fabrication and Characterization of THz Metamaterial Absorbers

Published on: December 27, 2012

Related Experiment Videos

Last Updated: Oct 30, 2025

Demonstration of Equal-Intensity Beam Generation by Dielectric Metasurfaces

Demonstration of Equal-Intensity Beam Generation by Dielectric Metasurfaces

Published on: June 7, 2019

Demonstration of Spin-Multiplexed and Direction-Multiplexed All-Dielectric Visible Metaholograms

Demonstration of Spin-Multiplexed and Direction-Multiplexed All-Dielectric Visible Metaholograms

Published on: September 25, 2020

Simulation, Fabrication and Characterization of THz Metamaterial Absorbers

Simulation, Fabrication and Characterization of THz Metamaterial Absorbers

Published on: December 27, 2012

Area of Science:

Optics and Photonics
Materials Science
Nanotechnology

Background:

Chiral materials exhibit distinct optical properties with circularly polarized light, crucial for optical sensing.
Enhancing chiroptical responses is key to improving chiral sensing sensitivity.
Metasurfaces offer a powerful platform for manipulating light properties.

Purpose of the Study:

To review the fundamental principles of chiroptical metasurfaces.
To categorize chiroptical metasurfaces based on their chirality origin (intrinsic vs. extrinsic).
To highlight the diverse applications of chiral metasurfaces.

Main Methods:

Review of existing literature on chiroptical metasurfaces.
Categorization of metasurfaces by chirality source.
Summarization of metasurface applications in optics.

Main Results:

Chiroptical metasurfaces significantly enhance chiroptical responses.
Metasurfaces can be classified into intrinsically and extrinsically chiral types.
Metasurfaces enable advanced optical functionalities.

Conclusions:

Chiroptical metasurfaces are vital for advancing chiral sensing technology.
The ability to tailor electromagnetic field manipulation is key to metasurface performance.
Future applications include metaholograms, metalenses, and enhanced sensors.