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Optical Chirality: Structures, Detection and Applications
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Optical Chirality: Structures, Detection and Applications

A special issue of Applied Sciences (ISSN 2076-3417). This special issue belongs to the section "Applied Physics General".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (10 November 2021) | Viewed by 12054

Special Issue Editors

Prof. Dr. Mario Bertolotti

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Basic and Applied Sciences for Engineering, Sapienza University of Rome, 00185 Roma, Italy
Interests: photonics; nonlinear optics; semiconductor; optics and photonics; optoelectronics; nanophotonics; optics and lasers; optics; optical physics; experimental physics
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Dr. Emilija Petronijevic

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Basic and Applied Sciences for Engineering, Sapienza University of Rome, 00185 Roma, Italy
Interests: applied physics; nanophotonics; nanomaterials; chirality; phase change materials

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Chirality at the nanoscale can be found in nanostructures of both intrinsic and extrinsic nature, and it is of great interest for applications spanning from chiral sensing to spin-dependent and circularly polarized sources. Design and investigation of new structures, their properties, and the schemes for detection of chiral response are hot topics in the optics and nanophotonics community today. Papers on these arguments are solicited.

Prof. Dr. Mario Bertolotti
Dr. Emilija Petronijevic
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

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Keywords

  • Chirality
  • Nanophotonics
  • Nanomaterials
  • Circular Dichroism
  • Optical Methods

Published Papers (5 papers)

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Research

15 pages, 26942 KiB  
Article
Characterization of Chirality in Diffractive Metasurfaces by Photothermal Deflection Technique
by Roberto Li Voti, Grigore Leahu, Emilija Petronijevic, Alessandro Belardini, Tiziana Cesca, Carlo Scian, Giovanni Mattei and Concita Sibilia
Appl. Sci. 2022, 12(3), 1109; https://doi.org/10.3390/app12031109 - 21 Jan 2022
Cited by 5 | Viewed by 1994
Abstract
Chirality, a lack of mirror symmetry, is present in nature at all scales; at the nanoscale, it governs the biochemical reactions of many molecules, influencing their pharmacology and toxicity. Chiral substances interact with left and right circularly polarized light differently, but this difference [...] Read more.
Chirality, a lack of mirror symmetry, is present in nature at all scales; at the nanoscale, it governs the biochemical reactions of many molecules, influencing their pharmacology and toxicity. Chiral substances interact with left and right circularly polarized light differently, but this difference is very minor in natural materials. Specially engineered, nanostructured, periodic materials can enhance the chiro-optical effects if the symmetry in their interactions with circular polarization is broken. In the diffraction range of such metasurfaces, the intensity of diffracted orders depends on the chirality of the input beam. In this work, we combine a photothermal deflection experiment with a novel theoretical framework to reconstruct both the thermal and optical behavior of chiro-optical behavior in diffracted beams. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Optical Chirality: Structures, Detection and Applications)
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8 pages, 2651 KiB  
Article
Fluorescence Spectroscopy of Enantiomeric Amide Compounds Enforced by Chiral Light
by Alessandro Belardini, Emilija Petronijevic, Ramin Ghahri, Daniele Rocco, Fabiana Pandolfi, Concita Sibilia and Leonardo Mattiello
Appl. Sci. 2021, 11(23), 11375; https://doi.org/10.3390/app112311375 - 1 Dec 2021
Cited by 4 | Viewed by 1746
Abstract
Chirality, the absence of mirror symmetry, governs behavior in most biologically important molecules, thus making the chiral recognition of great importance in the pharmaceutical and agrochemical industries, as well as medicine. Chiral molecules can be characterized by means of optical experiments based on [...] Read more.
Chirality, the absence of mirror symmetry, governs behavior in most biologically important molecules, thus making the chiral recognition of great importance in the pharmaceutical and agrochemical industries, as well as medicine. Chiral molecules can be characterized by means of optical experiments based on chiro-optical excitation of molecules. Specifically, chiral absorptive materials differently absorb left- and right-circular polarized light, i.e., they possess circular dichroism (CD). Unfortunately, the natural CD of most molecules is very low and lies in the ultraviolet range. Fluorescence-detected CD is a fast and sensitive tool for investigation of chiral molecules which emit light; ultralow CD in absorption can be detected as the difference in emission. In this work, we perform fluorescence-detected CD on novel chiral amide compounds, designed specifically for visible green emission; we synthesize two enantiomeric fluorescent compounds using low-cost starting compounds and easy purification. We investigate different solutions of the enantiomers at different concentrations, and we show that the fluorescence of the intrinsically chiral compounds depends on the polarization state of the penetrating light, which is absorbed at 400 nm and emits across the green wavelength range. We believe that these compounds can be coupled with plasmonic nanostructures, which further shows promise in applications regarding chiral sensing or chiral emission. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Optical Chirality: Structures, Detection and Applications)
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26 pages, 4381 KiB  
Article
Optical Chirality Determined from Mueller Matrices
by Hans Arwin, Stefan Schoeche, James Hilfiker, Mattias Hartveit, Kenneth Järrendahl, Olga Rubi Juárez-Rivera, Arturo Mendoza-Galván and Roger Magnusson
Appl. Sci. 2021, 11(15), 6742; https://doi.org/10.3390/app11156742 - 22 Jul 2021
Cited by 16 | Viewed by 2945
Abstract
Optical chirality, in terms of circular birefringence and circular dichroism, is described by its electromagnetic and magnetoelectric material tensors, and the corresponding optical activity contributes to the Mueller matrix. Here, spectroscopic ellipsometry in the spectral range 210–1690 nm is used to address chiral [...] Read more.
Optical chirality, in terms of circular birefringence and circular dichroism, is described by its electromagnetic and magnetoelectric material tensors, and the corresponding optical activity contributes to the Mueller matrix. Here, spectroscopic ellipsometry in the spectral range 210–1690 nm is used to address chiral phenomena by measuring Mueller matrices in transmission. Three approaches to determine chirality parameters are discussed. In the first approach, applicable in the absence of linear polarization effects, circular birefringence and circular dichroism are evaluated directly from elements of a Mueller matrix. In the second method, differential decomposition is employed, which allows for the unique separation of chirality parameters from linear anisotropic parameters as well as from depolarization provided that the sample is homogeneous along the optical path. Finally, electromagnetic modeling using the Tellegen constitutive relations is presented. The last method also allows structural effects to be included. The three methods to quantify optical chirality are demonstrated for selected materials, including sugar solutions, α-quartz, liquid crystals, beetle cuticle, and films of cellulose nanocrystals. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Optical Chirality: Structures, Detection and Applications)
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13 pages, 5205 KiB  
Article
Quantification of Optical Chirality in Cellulose Nanocrystal Films Prepared by Shear-Coating
by Olga Rubí Juárez-Rivera, Reina Araceli Mauricio-Sánchez, Kenneth Järrendahl, Hans Arwin and Arturo Mendoza-Galván
Appl. Sci. 2021, 11(13), 6191; https://doi.org/10.3390/app11136191 - 3 Jul 2021
Cited by 11 | Viewed by 2598
Abstract
Evaporation-induced-self-assembly is widely used to produce chiral cellulose nanocrystal (CNC) free-standing films reflecting left-handed polarized light. Research on supported chiral CNC films is rather scarce. The reflection and/or transmission of unpolarized light are the most common optical techniques used to characterize the selective [...] Read more.
Evaporation-induced-self-assembly is widely used to produce chiral cellulose nanocrystal (CNC) free-standing films reflecting left-handed polarized light. Research on supported chiral CNC films is rather scarce. The reflection and/or transmission of unpolarized light are the most common optical techniques used to characterize the selective reflection of CNC films whereas the use of techniques to quantify chiral properties is limited. Here, the fabrication of chiral CNC films supported on glass substrates by a shear-coating method, as well as a full characterization of their polarization properties, are reported. Optical chirality is evidenced in films, showing a brilliant blue structural color when viewed through a left-handed polarizer and darkness through a right-handed polarizer. Mueller-matrix data in the reflection and transmission modes are used to quantitatively characterize the structural origin of color in the films. The quantification of the linear and circular birefringence, as well as circular dichroism, is performed by analytical inversion of the Mueller matrix data in the transmission mode and regression analysis using Tellegen constitutive equations. The equivalence of the two methods to quantify the structural chirality in CNC films is demonstrated. The swelling of films in water and kinetics during drying is studied by reflection spectroscopy. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Optical Chirality: Structures, Detection and Applications)
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14 pages, 6422 KiB  
Article
Plasmonic Elliptical Nanohole Arrays for Chiral Absorption and Emission in the Near-Infrared and Visible Range
by Emilija Petronijevic, Ramin Ghahri and Concita Sibilia
Appl. Sci. 2021, 11(13), 6012; https://doi.org/10.3390/app11136012 - 28 Jun 2021
Cited by 6 | Viewed by 1672
Abstract
Chiral plasmonic nanostructures with tunable handedness-dependent absorption in the visible and infrared offer chiro-optical control at the nanoscale. Moreover, coupling them with emitting layers could lead to chiral nanosources, important for nanophotonic circuits. Here, we propose plasmonic elliptical nanohole arrays (ENHA) for circularly [...] Read more.
Chiral plasmonic nanostructures with tunable handedness-dependent absorption in the visible and infrared offer chiro-optical control at the nanoscale. Moreover, coupling them with emitting layers could lead to chiral nanosources, important for nanophotonic circuits. Here, we propose plasmonic elliptical nanohole arrays (ENHA) for circularly dependent near-infrared and visible emission. We first investigate broadband chiral behavior in an Au-ENHA embedded in glass by exciting it with plane waves. We then study the coupling of ENHA with a thin emitting layer embedded in glass; we focus on the emission wavelengths which provided high chirality in plane-wave simulations. Our novel simulation set-up monitors the chirality of the far-field emission by properly averaging a large set of homogeneously distributed, randomly oriented quantum sources. The intrinsic chirality of ENHA influences the circular polarization degree of the emitting layer. Finally, we study the emission dependence on the field distribution at the excitation wavelength. We demonstrate the chiral absorption and emission properties for Au-ENHA emitting in the near-infrared range, and for Ag-ENHA which is excited in green range and emits in the Lumogen Red range. The simple geometry of ENHA can be fabricated with low-cost nanosphere lithography and be covered with emission gel. We thus believe that this design can be of great importance for tunable chiral nanosources. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Optical Chirality: Structures, Detection and Applications)
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