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The ability to induce optical activity in nanoparticles and dynamically control its strength is of great practical importance due to potential applications in various areas, including biochemistry, toxicology, and pharmaceutical science. Here we propose a new method of creating optical activity in originally achiral quantum nanostructures based on the mixing of their energy states of different parities. The mixing can be achieved by selective excitation of specific states or via perturbing all the states in a controllable fashion. We analyze the general features of the so produced optical activity and elucidate the conditions required to realize the total dissymmetry of optical response. The proposed approach is applicable to a broad variety of real systems that can be used to advance chiroptical devices and methods.

The ability to induce optical activity in nanoparticles and dynamically control its strength is of great practical importance due to potential applications in various areas, including biochemistry, toxicology, and pharmaceutical science. Here we propose a new method of creating optical activity in originally achiral quantum nanostructures based on the mixing of their energy states of different parities. The mixing can be achieved by selective excitation of specific states or via perturbing all the states in a controllable fashion. We analyze the general features of the so produced optical activity and elucidate the conditions required to realize the total dissymmetry of optical response. The proposed approach is applicable to a broad variety of real systems that can be used to advance chiroptical devices and methods.

Fast and reliable separation of enantiomers of chiral nanoparticles requires elimination of all the forces that are independent of the nanoparticle handedness and creation of a sufficiently strong force that either pushes different enantiomers in opposite directions or delays the diffusion of one of them with respect to the other. Here we show how to construct such a completely chiral optical force using two counterpropagating circularly polarized plane waves of opposite helicities. We then explore capabilities of the related enantioseparation method by analytically solving the problem of the force-induced diffusion of chiral nanoparticles in a confined region, and reveal that it results in exponential spatial dependencies of the quantities measuring the purity of chiral substances. The proposed concept of a completely chiral optical force can potentially advance enantioseparation and enantiopurification techniques for all kinds of chiral nanoparticles that strongly interact with light.

Since chiral nanoparticles are much smaller than the optical wavelength, their enantiomers show little difference in the interaction with circularly polarized light. This scale mismatch makes the enhancement of enantioselectivity in optical excitation of nanoobjects a fundamental challenge in modern nanophotonics. Here we demonstrate that a strong dissymmetry of optical response from achiral nanoobjects can be achieved through their arrangement into chiral superstructures with the length scale comparable to the optical wavelength. This concept is illustrated by the example of the simple helix supercrystal made of semiconductor quantum dots. We show that this supercrystal almost fully absorbs light with one circular polarization and does not absorb the other. The giant circular dichroism of the supercrystal comes from the formation of chiral bright excitons, which are the optically active collective excitations of the entire supercrystal. Owing to the recent advances in assembly and self-organization of nanocrystals in large superparticle structures, the proposed principle of enantioselectivity enhancement has great potential of benefiting various chiral and analytical methods, which are used in biophysics, chemistry, and pharmaceutical science.

For centuries mankind has been modifying the optical properties of materials: first, by elaborating the geometry and composition of structures made of materials found in nature, later by structuring the existing materials at a scale smaller than the operating wavelength. Here we suggest an original approach to introduce optical activity in nanostructured materials, by theoretically demonstrating that conventional achiral semiconducting nanocrystals become optically active in the presence of screw dislocations, which can naturally develop during the nanocrystal growth. We show the new properties to emerge due to the dislocation-induced distortion of the crystal lattice and the associated alteration of the nanocrystal’s electronic subsystem, which essentially modifies its interaction with external optical fields. The g-factors of intraband transitions in our nanocrystals are found comparable with dissymmetry factors of chiral plasmonic complexes and exceeding the typical g-factors of chiral molecules by a factor of 1000. Optically active semiconducting nanocrystals—with chiral properties controllable by the nanocrystal dimensions, morphology, composition and blending ratio—will greatly benefit chemistry, biology and medicine by advancing enantiomeric recognition, sensing and resolution of chiral molecules.

The size dependence of the quantized energies of elementary excitations is an essential feature of quantum nanostructures, underlying most of their applications in science and technology. Here we report on a fundamental property of impurity states in semiconductor nanocrystals that appears to have been overlooked--the anticrossing of energy levels exhibiting different size dependencies. We show that this property is inherent to the energy spectra of charge carriers whose spatial motion is simultaneously affected by the Coulomb potential of the impurity ion and the confining potential of the nanocrystal. The coupling of impurity states, which leads to the anticrossing, can be induced by interactions with elementary excitations residing inside the nanocrystal or an external electromagnetic field. We formulate physical conditions that allow a straightforward interpretation of level anticrossings in the nanocrystal energy spectrum and an accurate estimation of the states' coupling strength.

The study of supercrystals made of periodically arranged semiconductor quantum dots is essential for the advancement of emerging nanophotonics technologies. By combining the strong spatial confinement of elementary excitations inside quantum dots and exceptional design flexibility, quantum-dot supercrystals provide broad opportunities for engineering desired optical responses and developing superior light manipulation techniques on the nanoscale. Here we suggest tailoring the energy spectrum and wave functions of the supercrystals' collective excitations through the variation of different structural and material parameters. In particular, by calculating the excitonic spectra of quantum dots assembled in two-dimensional Bravais lattices we demonstrate a wide variety of spectrum transformation scenarios upon alterations in the quantum dot arrangement. This feature offers unprecedented control over the supercrystal's electromagnetic properties and enables the development of new nanophotonics materials and devices.