Local growth mediated by plasmonic hot carriers: chirality from achiral nanocrystals using circularly polarized light

Financiado para publicación en acceso aberto: Universidade de Vigo/CISUGPlasmonic nanocrystals and their assemblies are excellent tools to create functional systems, including systems with strong chiral optical responses. Here we study the possibility of growing chiral plasmonic nanocrystals from strictly nonchiral seeds of different types by using circularly polarized light as the chirality-inducing mechanism. We present a novel theoretical methodology that simulates realistic nonlinear and inhomogeneous photogrowth processes in plasmonic nanocrystals, mediated by the excitation of hot carriers that can drive surface chemistry. We show the strongly anisotropic and chiral growth of oriented nanocrystals with lowered symmetry, with the striking feature that such chiral growth can appear even for nanocrystals with subwavelength sizes. Furthermore, we show that the chiral growth of nanocrystals in solution is fundamentally challenging. This work explores new ways of growing monolithic chiral plasmonic nanostructures and can be useful for the development of plasmonic photocatalysis and fabrication technologies.Xunta de Galicia | Ref. ED431C 2016-034Xunta de Galicia | IN607A 2018/5Agencia Estatal de Investigación | Ref. CTM2017-84050-RAgencia Estatal de Investigación | Ref. PID2020-113704RB-I00Agencia Estatal de Investigación | Ref. PID2020-118282RA-I0