Abstract
We demonstrate a chiral meta-molecule in the ultraviolet (UV) and visible (VIS) regions using a complex of Au nanoparticles (NPs) and rod-shaped tobacco mosaic virus (TMV). Au NPs five nm in diameter are uniformly formed on peptide-modified TMV. The peptide-modified TMV with uniform-sized Au NPs has improved dispersion in solution. A negative circular dichroism (CD) peak is produced around 540 nm, at plasmonic resonance wavelength of Au NPs. Additionally, modification of a CD peak in the UV region is observed. Attaching NPs to a virus causes the enhancement and modification of CD peaks in both the UV and VIS regions. Our results open a new avenue for the preparation of three dimensional chiral metamaterials at optical frequencies.
Highlights
Metamaterials consisting of artificial building blocks much smaller than the wavelength of light are a rich and rapidly growing area in electromagnetism of matter [1, 2]
We report optical properties of a complex made of gold (Au) NPs and tobacco mosaic virus (TMV)
We propose that propagation and circularly polarized directional differences of refractive indices lead to the modification of optical activity in the UV region with the attachment of Au NPs
Summary
Metamaterials consisting of artificial building blocks much smaller than the wavelength of light are a rich and rapidly growing area in electromagnetism of matter [1, 2]. Virus proteins are promising building blocks to construct 3D optical metamaterials. Because of the strong absorption in the ultraviolet (UV) region, proteins show large circular dichroism (CD), which is caused by the absorption difference between left/right-handed circularly polarized light, in the UV region [3]. This feature is attractive in terms of chiral metamaterials [4], and enables us to realize negative refraction of light even without a negative index of refraction [5]. In the visible (VIS) region, proteins are silent in CD spectra
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