Field-Mediated Chirality Information Transfer in Molecule-Nanoparticle Hybrids

Chirality is a defining property of optically active molecules, i.e., those capable of having an asymmetric Raman response to circularly polarized light or rotating the plane defined by the two vector components of the associated electromagnetic field. It also plays a fundamental role in the mechanism of spin polarization induced by electron transport. We present herein a theory and computational support for a largely unexplored mechanism of chirality information transfer mediated by the electromagnetic field. This novel phenomenon is responsible for causing a chiral-like optical Raman response in an otherwise achiral molecule located tens of nanometers apart in a nanostructure. The mechanism for this striking result, which has been observed experimentally, is completely different from the conventional geometric chirality transfer associated with chemical bonds and involves a full self-consistent treatment of the electric and magnetic polarizability responses of the chiral unit and the propagating field carrying information about the inversion symmetry breaking at the molecule-nanoparticle interface caused by the presence of the chiral moiety.