Chiral Plasmonic Structures For Mediating Chemical Transformation And Detection Of Molecules With Spatial Chirality

A process for causing a chemical transformation of a molecule on the surface of structure comprising:

• supplying a metal dielectric possessing spatial chirality capable of eliciting surface plasmon modes at selected frequencies to provide a surface bound electric field that exhibits propagational polarization when excited by a circularly polarized external source and/or a vibrational dipole created by a molecule adsorbed on said metal dielectric surface, said molecule having a spatial chirality;
• coupling said surface bound electric field with said molecule on the surface of said metal dielectric structure such that the propagational polarization of the surface bound electric field couples with the chirality of said molecule;
• chemically transforming said molecule.

A process for spatially resolving images of individual enantiomers of a racemic mixture:

• supplying a metal dielectric possessing spatial chirality capable of eliciting surface plasmon modes at selected frequencies to provide a surface bound electric field that exhibits propagational polarization when excited by a circularly polarized external source and/or a vibrational dipole created by a racemic mixture of molecules adsorbed on said metal dielectric surface, said molecules having spatial chirality;
• coupling said surface bound electric field with said molecule on the surface of said metal dielectric structure such that the propagational polarization of the surface bound electric field couples with the chirality of said molecule;
• detecting the proportion of enantiomers in said racemic mixture.