Optical Self-Assembly of Chiral Nanostructures by a Seed Symmetry-Breaking Effect (Laser Photonics Rev. 19(11)/2025)

Assembling Chiral Nanostructures

The cover feature shows a laser-induced chiral structure self-assembly. The trajectories of photons are represented by white lines that are shifted around the structure (spin-orbit interaction). The white spheres represent the photons, and the rotation sign around these spheres indicates the spin angular momentum (circular polarization). The ripples around the structure indicate the fluid effect occurring during the seed symmetry-breaking process. The red structure represents an achiral structure after symmetry breaking, and the red field outside shows the electric field that leads to the formation of chiral structures. Additionally, we show a chiral structure array to demonstrate our array fabrication. See article 2402108 by Zhen-Ze Li, Lei Wang, Hong-Bo Sun and co-workers for more details.