Increasing the circular dichroism of the planar chiral nanostructure by inducing coupling between the coverage layer and the planar nanostructure

Opt Express. 2020 Jul 6;28(14):20563-20572. doi: 10.1364/OE.397672.

Abstract

Circular dichroism (CD) has been widely studied in recent decades because of its wide application in biomedical detection. Nanostructures with different heights (NDH) usually increase the transmission CD effect. To achieve such nanostructures, one needs to repeatedly perform the electron-beam lithography (EBL) method twice or more, layer-by-layer, which is a very complicated process. Here, we propose a method to prepare NDH by combining the EBL and oblique angle deposition (OAD) techniques. L-shaped planar silver nanostructures are prepared using EBL and normal electron beam deposition, and the OAD method is then used to partially cover one arm of the L-shaped nanostructure. Numerical simulations reveal that the height difference in the two arms of the L-shaped NDH (LSNDH) causes a difference in the polarization directions of the left- (LCP) and right-circularly polarized (RCP) incident light, thereby, generating CD effects. A 2D material is used to cover the LSNDH to further increase the charge polarization direction differences, which considerably increases the CD effect. These results are useful in simplifying and increasing the convenience of the preparation method of 3D chiral nanostructures. Furthermore, the proposed nanostructure may have potential application in biosensor, such as chiral enantiomer sensors.