Chirality of self-assembled metal–semiconductor nanostructures

Abstract

Plasmonic nanoparticle (NP) chiral dimers are fabricated using different types of homogenous materials. However, the effect of semiconductor nanoscale dimers is unknown. This paper describes the chiroptical effect of different plasmonic metal–semiconductor hybrid nanostructures composed of gold (Au), silver (Ag) NPs and quantum dots (QDs). Three types of DNA-mediated high yield dimers were obtained, which had a distinct diverse chiroptical effect of peak position and intensity. The semiconductor QDs dimers showed a weak CD signal at 600 nm, while enhanced signals were observed after coupling with Au or Ag NPs. This interesting chiroptical effect, which originated from the assembled chiral geometry, provides a new route for further chiral structures fabrication and applications.