Polarization-sensitive optoionic membranes from chiral plasmonic nanoparticles

Abstract

Optoelectronic effects differentiating absorption of right and left circularly polarized photons in thin films of chiral materials are typically prohibitively small for their direct photocurrent observation. Chiral metasurfaces increase the electronic sensitivity to circular polarization, but their out-of-plane architecture entails manufacturing and performance trade-offs. Here, we show that nanoporous thin films of chiral nanoparticles enable high sensitivity to circular polarization due to light-induced polarization-dependent ion accumulation at nanoparticle interfaces. Self-assembled multilayers of gold nanoparticles modified with l-phenylalanine generate a photocurrent under right-handed circularly polarized light as high as 2.41 times higher than under left-handed circularly polarized light. The strong plasmonic coupling between the multiple nanoparticles producing planar chiroplasmonic modes facilitates the ejection of electrons, whose entrapment at the membrane-electrolyte interface is promoted by a thick layer of enantiopure phenylalanine. Demonstrated detection of light ellipticity with equal sensitivity at all incident angles mimics phenomenological aspects of polarization vision in marine animals. The simplicity of self-assembly and sensitivity of polarization detection found in optoionic membranes opens the door to a family of miniaturized fluidic devices for chiral photonics.

Optically Programmable Circularly Polarized Photodetector

“…Thus, achieving switchable detection of L-CPL and R-CPL makes it possible to integrate devices with greater response to both left- and right-handed CPL on a wafer. This outcome is an important contribution to the miniaturization and integration of the CPL-based photodetectors. , Besides, the reported CPL detectors mainly use a sole chiral semiconductor ( S or R ) as the response layer for CPL detection, rendering hence the switchable detection of left- and right-handed CPL challenging. − We have to underline that to achieve switchable detection of both L-CPL and R-CPL, the chirality of the CPL-sensitive layer should be tunable.…”

Morphological and Optical Transitions during Micelle-Seeded Chiral Growth on Gold Nanorods

“…Intrinsically chiral plasmonic nanostructures support localized surface plasmon resonances (LSPRs) that respond differently to left- and right-handed circularly polarized light while displaying the usual characteristics of LSPRs, such as local field enhancement, antenna effect, hot-carrier production, and photothermal effects. , A combination of chirality and conventional plasmonic features creates opportunities for the design of more efficient nanophotonic and optoelectronic devices, − biosensing and biomedical applications, − photochemistry, and surface-enhanced spectroscopies . Therefore, plasmonic nanostructures with strong chiroptical activity are ideal platforms for studying such phenomena and applications.…”

Chiral nanomaterials for biosensing, bioimaging, and disease therapies

“…2 Chiral interactions are involved in many critical biological reactions in vivo because most biomolecules, including DNA, amino acids, peptides, and proteins, are chiral. [3][4][5] The rapid development and progress in nanotechnology has allowed the construction of a large number of artificial chiral nanomaterials, including individual chiral nanoparticles (NPs), 6 chiral nanoassemblies, 7 and two-dimensional (2D) chiral nanofilms, 8 which demonstrate the remarkable properties of these materials, such as their circular dichroism (CD), fluorescence, surface enhanced Raman scattering (SERS), magnetic responsiveness, and so on. [9][10][11][12] Because natural chiral compounds have the advantages of safety and biocompatibility, they have been used to fabricate a series of chiral nanostructures, which in turn can affect biological functions and fates.…”