Hierarchical, chiral hybrid superstructures of chromophores and nanoparticles are expected to give rise to intriguing unveiled chiroptical responses originating from the complex chiral interactions among the components. Herein, DNA origami cavity that could self-assemble into one-dimensional (1D) DNA tubes was employed as a scaffold to accurately organize metal nanoparticles and chromophores. The chiral interactions were studied at the level of individual hybrid particles and their 1D hybrid superstructures. Complex chirality mechanisms involving global structural chirality, plasmon-induced circular dichroism (PICD) and excitoncoupled circular dichroism (ECCD) were disentangled. The multiplexed CD spectrum superposition revealed the chirality evolution at different length scales. These results can offer a model for boosting the theoretical understanding of classical-quantum hybrid systems, and would inspire the future design of optically-active substances across length scales.

A significant challenge exists in obtaining chiral nanostructures that are amenable to both solution-phase selfassembly and solid-phase preservation, which enable the observation of unveiled optical responses impacted by the dynamic or static conformation and the incident excitations. Here, to meet this demand, we employed DNA origami technology to create quasi-planar chiral satellite-core nanoparticle superstructures with an intermediate geometry between the monolayer and the double layer. We disentangled the complex chiral mechanisms, which include planar chirality, 3D chirality, and induced chirality transfer, through combined theoretical studies and thorough experimental measurements of both solution-and solid-phase samples. Two distinct states of optical responses were demonstrated by the dynamic and static conformations, involving a split or nonsplit circular dichroism (CD) line shape. More importantly, our study on chiral nanoparticle superstructures on a substrate featuring both a dominant 2D geometry and a defined 3D represents a great leap toward the realization of colloidal chiral metasurfaces.

Chirality, a fascinating property ubiquitous in nature, plays an important role for living matters. DNA molecules as construction materials can precisely organize metal nanoparticles into chiral geometry at nanoscale. These...

Hierarchical, chiral hybrid superstructures of chromophores and nanoparticles are expected to give rise to intriguing unveiled chiroptical responses originating from the complex chiral interactions among the components. Herein, DNA origami cavity that could self-assemble into one-dimensional (1D) DNA tubes was employed as a scaffold to accurately organize metal nanoparticles and chromophores. The chiral interactions were studied at the level of individual hybrid particles and their 1D hybrid superstructures. Complex chirality mechanisms involving global structural chirality, plasmon-induced circular dichroism (PICD) and excitoncoupled circular dichroism (ECCD) were disentangled. The multiplexed CD spectrum superposition revealed the chirality evolution at different length scales. These results can offer a model for boosting the theoretical understanding of classical-quantum hybrid systems, and would inspire the future design of optically-active substances across length scales.