Chirality arising from small defects in gold nanoparticle arrays

The symmetry of metal nanostructures may be broken by their overall features or small-scale defects. To separate the roles of these two mechanisms in chiral symmetry breaking, we prepare gold nanostructures with chirality occurring on different levels. Linear optical measurements reveal small chiral...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Optics express 2006-01, Vol.14 (2), p.950-955
Main Authors: Canfield, Brian K, Kujala, Sami, Laiho, Kaisa, Jefimovs, Konstantins, Turunen, Jari, Kauranen, Martti
Format: Article
Language:English
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Summary:The symmetry of metal nanostructures may be broken by their overall features or small-scale defects. To separate the roles of these two mechanisms in chiral symmetry breaking, we prepare gold nanostructures with chirality occurring on different levels. Linear optical measurements reveal small chiral signatures, whereas the chiral responses from second-harmonic generation are enormous. The responses of all structures are remarkably similar, suggesting that uncontrollable defects play an important role in symmetry breaking.
ISSN:1094-4087
1094-4087
DOI:10.1364/OPEX.14.000950