General

New article in Nature Materials

Mechano-tunable chiral metasurfaces via colloidal assembly
Patrick T. Probst, Martin Mayer, Vaibhav Gupta, Anja Maria Steiner, Ziwei Zhou, Günter K. Auernhammer, Tobias A. F. König* and Andreas Fery*
Congratulations to Patrick, Martin, Viabhav and Anja for their publication in Nature Materials. These PhD students were scientifically advised by Tobias König as first supervisor and second supervisor.
In this article, the authors describe a colloidal metasurface with exceptionally high sensitivity. The special feature of this colloidal metasurface is that it creates a spindle-shaped rotating polarization (a chiral optical effect) without being composed of a spindle-shaped structure (of basic chiral structures). The effect is thus generated from the structure and is not a constituent of the individual nanoparticles. Until now, such structures could only be produced using complex and expensive fabrication methods. Using now the colloidal self-assembly approach, we were able to self-assemble the nanoparticles over a large area and produce them in multiple units. Only by stacking the individual nanoparticle chains the „handiness“ (chirality) is created. The low-cost fabrication, easy integration into industrial processes and the demonstration of the exceptionally high sensitivity enable a future mass production of this chiral metasurface.

Further reading
Heiko Weckbrodt, Das Smartphone als chiraler Weinkenner, Oiger.de
Nature Materials-Publikation Dresdner Wissenschaftler: Neue effiziente Herstellungsmethode für optisch aktive Nano-Schichten, IPF Dresden