Plasmonic Chiral Nanostructures: Chiroptical Effects and Applications

The plasmonic chiroptical effect has been used to manipulate chiral states of light, where the strong field enhancement and light localization in metallic nanostructures can amplify the chiroptical response. Moreover, in metamaterials, the chiroptical effect leads to circular dichroism (CD), circular birefringence (CB), and asymmetric transmission. Potential applications enabled by chiral plasmonics have been realized in various areas of nanoscience and nanotechnology. In this review, both basic theories and state-of-the-art studies on plasmonic chiroptical effects are summarized. Molecular chiroptical effects are drastically enhanced by metallic nanostructures that can generate a superchiral field, which arises from the strong electromagnetic interactions. Both intrinsic and extrinsic plasmonic chiral metamaterials formed by the periodic arrangement of metallic nanostructured units show high levels of CB, CD, and asymmetric transmission. Consequent applications including photo detection, molecular sensing, and chirality tuning are discussed, and a perspective of emerging concepts such as Pancharatnam-Berry (PB) phase in this booming research field is presented.