Three-dimensional nanoscale vortex line visualization and chiral nanostructure fabrication of tightly focused multi-vortex beams via direct laser writing

Abstract

Optical singularity is pivotal in nature and has attracted wide interest from many disciplines nowadays, including optical communication, quantum optics, and biomedical imaging. Visualizing vortex lines formed by phase singularities and fabricating chiral nanostructures using the evolution of vortex lines are of great significance. In this paper, we introduce a promising method based on two-photon polymerization direct laser writing (2PP-DLW) to record the morphology of vortex lines generated by tightly focused multi-vortex beams (MVBs) at the nanoscale. Due to Gouy phase, the singularities of the MVBs rotate around the optical axis and move towards each other when approaching the focal plane. The propagation dynamics of vortex lines are recorded by 2PP-DLW, which explicitly exhibits the evolution of the phase singularities. Additionally, the MVBs are employed to fabricate stable three-dimensional chiral nanostructures due to the spiral-forward property of the vortex line. Because of the obvious chiral features of the manufactured nanostructures, a strong vortical dichroism is observed when excited by the light carrying orbital angular momentum. A number of applications can be envisioned with these chiral nanostructures, such as optical sensing, chiral separation, and information storage.