Circularly polarized light (CPL) is a versatile tool to prepare chiral nanostructures, but the mechanism for inducing enantioselectivity is not well understood. This work shows that the energy and polarization of visible photons can initiate photodeposition at different sites on plasmonic nanocrystals. Here, CPL on achiral gold bipyramids (AuBPs) creates hot holes that oxidatively deposit PbO2 asymmetrically. We show for the first time that the location of PbO2 photodeposition and hence optical dissymmetry depends on the CPL wavelength. Specifically, 488 and 532 nm CPL induce PbO2 growth in the middle of AuBPs, whereas 660 nm CPL induces PbO2 growth at the tips. Our observations show that wavelength-dependent plasmonic field distributions are more important than surface lightning rod effects in localizing plasmon-mediated photochemistry. The largest optical dissymmetry occurs at excitation wavelengths between the transverse and longitudinal resonances of the AuBPs because higher-order modes are required to induce chiral electric fields.
Keywords: chiral plasmonic nanostructures; circularly polarized light; optical activity; plasmon-mediated synthesis; site-selective deposition.