title: Chiral plasmonics of self-assembled nanorod dimers.
abstract: Chiral nanoscale photonic systems typically follow either tetrahedral or helical geometries that require four or more different constituent nanoparticles. Smaller number of particles and different chiral geometries taking advantage of the self-organization capabilities of nanomaterials will advance understanding of chiral plasmonic effects, facilitate development of their theory, and stimulate practical applications of chiroplasmonics. Here we show that gold nanorods self-assemble into side-by-side orientated pairs and "ladders" in which chiral properties originate from the small dihedral angle between them. Spontaneous twisting of one nanorod versus the other one breaks the centrosymmetric nature of the parallel assemblies. Two possible enantiomeric conformations with positive and negative dihedral angles were obtained with different assembly triggers. The chiral nature of the angled nanorod pairs was confirmed by 4π full space simulations and the first example of single-particle CD spectroscopy. Self-assembled nanorod pairs and "ladders" enable the development of chiral metamaterials, (bio)sensors, and new catalytic processes.
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Food Science and Technology, School of Food Science and Technology, Jiangnan University, Wuxi, JiangSu, PRC.
authors.forename: Wei
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Ma
authors.forename: Hua
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Kuang
authors.forename: Libing
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Liguang
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Xu
authors.forename: Wei-Shun
authors.initials: WS
authors.lastname: Chang
authors.forename: Huanan
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: Maozhong
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Sun
authors.forename: Yinyue
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Zhu
authors.forename: Yuan
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Zhao
authors.forename: Liqiang
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.forename: Chuanlai
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Xu
authors.forename: Stephan
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Link
authors.forename: Nicholas A
authors.initials: NA
authors.lastname: Kotov
mesh_terms: D006046:Gold / Q000737:chemistry*; D053768:Metal Nanoparticles / Q000737:chemistry*; D036103:Nanotechnology / Q000295:instrumentation*; D043942:Nanotubes / Q000737:chemistry*; D011108:Polymers / Q000737:chemistry*; D013237:Stereoisomerism; D020349:Surface Plasmon Resonance
chemical_list: D011108:Polymers; D006046:Gold