Chiroptical Sensing and Sorting by Structured Materials and Structured Light

手性分子是具有左手和右手镜像(称为对映体)的不对称分子，不能重叠。首席研究人员将使用合理设计的金属和介电纳米结构和结构光束，通过一种完全光学的方法来显著增强手性分子的传感和分类。这可能导致比目前的方法大大改进的粒子和单分子水平的检测。新型手性传感器的开发可以显著提高疾病和/或单分子生物标记物的检测和分选的极限。建议的发展包括：1)利用光场的手性来协同感知和操控手性分子，2)利用精密光刻技术制造平面纳米结构以产生独特的效果，3)利用纳米立方体产生高度独特的传感能力来分选手性分子并通过手性优先捕获分子，4)利用纳米结构开发超灵敏的手性光谱技术，利用最先进的微/纳米操纵技术可以开发出用于分子分选的新型传感器。这一奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Chiral molecules are asymmetric molecules with left- and right-handed mirror images (called enantiomers) that cannot be superimposed. The principal investigator will use rationally engineered metallic and dielectric nanostructures and structured light beams to substantially enhance sensing and sorting of chiral molecules via an entirely optical approach. This could lead to vastly improved particle and single molecule level detection over current methods. The development of a new class of novel chiral sensors can significantly improve the limit of detection and sorting of biomarkers of diseases and/or single molecules.The proposed development includes, 1) use of chirality of optical fields to synergistically sense and manipulate chiral molecules, 2) fabrication of planar nanostructures using precision lithography techniques to create unique effects, 3) Potential use of nanocubes yielding highly unique sensing capability for sorting of chiral molecules as well as preferentially trapping molecules by chirality and 4) use of nanostructures for the development of ultrasensitive chiroptical spectroscopy using state of the art micro-/nano-manipulation techniques can lead to the development of new class of sensors for molecular sorting. .This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.