Related Experiment Video
Updated: May 30, 2025

15:06
Measurement of Scattering Nonlinearities from a Single Plasmonic Nanoparticle
Published on: January 3, 2016
12.8K
Unidirectional chiral scattering from single enantiomeric plasmonic nanoparticles
Yuanyang Xie1, Alexey V Krasavin2, Diane J Roth2
1Department of Physics and London Centre for Nanotechnology, King's College London, London, WS2R 2LS, UK. yuanyang.xie@kcl.ac.uk.
Nature Communications
|January 28, 2025
Summary
Researchers developed rotating chiral dipoles for unidirectional chiral scattering of light. This breakthrough enables precise control over light
Area of Science:
- Nanophotonics
- Chiral light-matter interactions
- Plasmonics
Background:
- Controlling chiral light at the nanoscale is crucial for advanced optical applications.
- Existing methods for manipulating chiral light face limitations in directionality and sensitivity.
Purpose of the Study:
- To introduce and demonstrate a novel concept for achieving unidirectional chiral scattering.
- To engineer nanostructures for enantio-sensitive and directional control of circularly polarized light.
Main Methods:
- Concept of rotating chiral dipoles.
- Engineering multipole excitations in helicoidal plasmonic nanoparticles.
- Experimental demonstration of directional scattering.
Main Results:
- Achieved enantio-sensitive and highly-directional forward scattering of circularly polarized light.
- Demonstrated that scattering intensity depends on light handedness and structure chirality.
- Validated the rotating chiral dipole concept in plasmonic nanoparticles.
Conclusions:
- The rotating chiral dipole concept provides a new pathway for controlling chiral light scattering.
- This approach opens opportunities for innovative designs in chiral nanostructures and optical nano-antennas.
- Enables advanced applications in optical information processing, quantum technologies, and optical manipulation.
Related Concept Videos
Chirality at Nitrogen, Phosphorus, and Sulfur
5.7K
Chirality is most prevalent in carbon-based tetrahedral compounds, but this important facet of molecular symmetry extends to sp3-hybridized nitrogen, phosphorus and sulfur centers, including trivalent molecules with lone pairs. Here, the lone pair behaves as a functional group in addition to the other three substituents to form an analogous tetrahedral center that can be chiral.
A consequence of chirality is the need for enantiomeric resolution. While this is theoretically possible for all...
A consequence of chirality is the need for enantiomeric resolution. While this is theoretically possible for all...
5.7K
Chirality in Nature
12.8K
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.
12.8K

