Abstract
Detecting the chirality of molecules is of great importance in optics, biomedicine, and materials science. In chiroptical spectroscopy, it’s crucial to achieve strong chiroptical signals with a minimal number of chiral molecules. The molecular chiroptical signals, however, are typically weak for chiral molecular sensing in conventional circular dichroism using photonic spin angular momentum, even in the presence of a large number of chiral molecules (micromoles to millimoles). Here, by involving chiral light-matter interaction with photonic orbital angular momentum, we demonstrate strong chiroptical responses that reflect the molecular chirality in a single chiral nanoassembly. We experimentally present the helical dichroism spectra of chiral nanoassemblies synthesized f…
Abstract
Detecting the chirality of molecules is of great importance in optics, biomedicine, and materials science. In chiroptical spectroscopy, it’s crucial to achieve strong chiroptical signals with a minimal number of chiral molecules. The molecular chiroptical signals, however, are typically weak for chiral molecular sensing in conventional circular dichroism using photonic spin angular momentum, even in the presence of a large number of chiral molecules (micromoles to millimoles). Here, by involving chiral light-matter interaction with photonic orbital angular momentum, we demonstrate strong chiroptical responses that reflect the molecular chirality in a single chiral nanoassembly. We experimentally present the helical dichroism spectra of chiral nanoassemblies synthesized from L/D-cystines, consistent with electromagnetic simulations. The asymmetry factors in the fundamental wavelength and photoluminescence emission reach values of 0.53 and 1.18, respectively, exceeding those observed in the circular dichroism mechanism. To improve the dimensions of helical dichroism spectroscopy, we analyze helical dichroism in wavelength domain, polarization domain, and momentum space. Our findings not only expand the methods for trace chiral molecular sensing but also provide insights into chiral light-matter interactions.
Data availability
The main data supporting the results in this study are available within the paper and its Supplementary Information. Other source data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding authors upon request.
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Acknowledgements
This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 62375253 and 62325507), National Key R&D Program of China (2021YFF0502700 and 2023YFF0613600). C.-W.Q. acknowledged the financial support by the Ministry of Education, Republic of Singapore (Grant Nos. A-8002152-00-00 and A-8002458-00-00), and the Competitive Research Program Award (NRF-CRP26-2021-0004 and NRF-CRP30-2023-0003) from the National Research Foundation, Prime Minister’s Office, Singapore. C.W.Q. also acknowledged the support from the National University of Singapore Suzhou Research Institute via Grant No. R-2023-S-011. We acknowledge the Experimental Center of Engineering and Material Sciences at USTC for the fabrication and measurement of samples. This work was partly carried out at the USTC Center for Micro and Nanoscale Research and Fabrication.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
CAS Key Laboratory of Mechanical Behavior and Design of Materials, Department of Precision Machinery and Precision Instrumentation, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, China
Yusheng Jin, Xinghao Wang, Zhijie Xia, Xiaoxu Rao, Jiaru Chu, Dong Wu & Jincheng Ni 1.
Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, National University of Singapore, Singapore, Singapore
Xiaomei Chen, Kaixuan Li, Yucheng Jiang & Cheng-Wei Qiu 1.
Jiangsu Key Laboratory of Intelligent Optoelectronic Devices and Chips, School of Physical Science and Technology, Suzhou University of Science and Technology, Suzhou, China
Yucheng Jiang 1.
National University of Singapore Suzhou Research Institute, Suzhou, Jiangsu, China
Cheng-Wei Qiu 1.
Department of Physics, National University of Singapore, Singapore, Singapore
Cheng-Wei Qiu 1.
State Key Laboratory of Opto-Electronic Information Acquisition and Protection Technology, Anhui University, Hefei, Anhui, China
Jincheng Ni
Authors
- Yusheng Jin
- Xinghao Wang
- Zhijie Xia
- Xiaoxu Rao
- Xiaomei Chen
- Kaixuan Li
- Yucheng Jiang
- Jiaru Chu
- Dong Wu
- Cheng-Wei Qiu
- Jincheng Ni
Contributions
Y. Jin and J.N. proposed the idea and conceived the experiment. Y. Jin, X.W., and Z.X. performed the experiments. Y. Jin, J.N., and X.R. performed the data analysis. Y. Jin and J.N. performed the numerical simulations. Y. Jin, J.N., and C.W.Q. wrote the manuscript. X.C., K.L., Y. Jiang, and J.C. revised the manuscript. J.N., D.W., and C.W.Q. supervised the project.
Corresponding authors
Correspondence to Dong Wu, Cheng-Wei Qiu or Jincheng Ni.
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Cite this article
Jin, Y., Wang, X., Xia, Z. et al. Multidimensional helical dichroism from a chiral molecular nanoassembly. Nat Commun (2026). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-026-68540-y
Received: 11 November 2025
Accepted: 08 January 2026
Published: 29 January 2026
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-026-68540-y