Light-Imprinted Chirality in Nanomaterials: From Principles to Applications

Light-induced chirality represents a transformative paradigm for fabricating chiral nanostructures, offering unique advantages over traditional approaches including chemical synthesis, self-assembly, and lithography. This review provides a comprehensive framework encompassing light-based strategies for imprinting and tuning chirality in nanomaterials, which includes laser direct writing, optical manipulation, CPL-induced symmetry breaking with the assistance of surface plasmons, optical vortex structuring, and momentum transfer. We critically compare different optical approaches, providing clear selection guidelines based on resolution, scalability, material compatibility, and equipment requirements. We also examine dynamic light-modulated chirality for switchable and reconfigurable structures, and highlight their emerging applications in biomedicine, sensing, polarization optics, and chiral displays. Finally, we conclude this review with current challenges and future directions. By establishing light-induced chirality as the most promising route for scalable chiral nanofabrication, this review guides researchers in harnessing light to create next-generation functional materials.