Open AccessGiant circular dichroism enhancement and chiroptical illusion in hybrid molecule-plasmonic nanostructures
Author(s) -
Yineng Liu,
Rongyao Wang,
Xiangdong Zhang
Publication year - 2014
Publication title -
optics express
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.394
H-Index - 271
ISSN - 1094-4087
DOI - 10.1364/oe.22.004357
Subject(s) - circular dichroism , plasmon , chirality (physics) , plasmonic nanoparticles , molecule , materials science , vibrational circular dichroism , molecular physics , cluster (spacecraft) , optics , physics , optoelectronics , crystallography , chemistry , symmetry breaking , chiral symmetry breaking , quantum mechanics , computer science , nambu–jona lasinio model , programming language
Recently, there are great interest in studying the interaction between chiral molecules and plasmonic particles, because a weak circular dichroism (CD) signal in the ultraviolet (UV) region from chiral molecules can be both enhanced and transferred to the visible wavelength range by using plasmonic particles. Thus, ultrasensitive probe of tiny amounts of chiral substance by CD are worth waiting for. Here we present another way to strongly enhance CD of chiral molecules by using plasmonic particle cluster, which need not transfer to the visible wavelength. The method to calculate CD of chiral molecules in nanosphere clusters has been developed by means of multiple scattering of electromagnetic multipole fields. Our calculated results show that 2 orders of magnitude CD enhancement in the UV region for chiral molecules can be realized. Such a CD enhancement is very sensitive to the cluster structure. The cluster structure can cause chiroptical illusion in which a mirror symmetry in the CD spectra of opposite enantiomeric molecules is broken. The correction of quantum size effect on the phenomenon has also been considered. Our findings open up an alternative avenue for the ultrasensitive detection and illusion of chiral information.