Nonlinear Amplification of Chirality in Self-Assembled Plasmonic Nanostructures

Molecular chirality transfer and amplification is at the heart of the fundamental understanding of chiral origin and fabrication of artificial chiral materials. We investigate here the nonlinear amplification effect in the chiral transfer from small molecules to assembled plasmonic nanoparticles. Our results show clearly a recognizable nonlinear behavior of the electronic and plasmonic circular dichroism activities, demonstrating the validity of the "majority-rules" principle operating in both the three-dimensional interface-confined molecularly chiral environment and the assembled plasmonic nanoparticles. Such twin "majority-rules" effects from the self-assembled organic-inorganic nanocomposite system have not been reported previously. By establishing a direct correlation between the dynamic template of the molecularly chiral environment and the nonlinear chiral amplification in the nanoparticle assemblies, this study may provide an insightful understanding of the hierarchical and cooperative chiral information transfer from molecular levels to nanoscales.