Superchiral fields generated by nanostructures and their applications for chiral sensing

Chirality is ubiquitous in natural world. Although with similar physical and chemical properties, chiral enantiomers could play different roles in biochemical processes. Discrimination of chiral enantiomers is extremely important in biochemical, analytical chemistry, and pharmaceutical industries. Conventional chiroptical spectroscopic methods are disadvantageous at a limited detection sensitivity because of the weak signals of natural chiral molecules. Recently, superchiral fields were proposed to effectively enhance the interaction between light and molecules, allowing for ultrasensitive chiral detection. Intensive theoretical and experimental works have been devoted to generation of superchiral fields based on artificial nanostructures and their application in ultrasensitive chiral sensing. In this review, we present a survey on these works. We begin with the introduction of chiral properties of electromagnetic fields. Then, the optical chirality enhancement and ultrasensitive chiral detection based on chiral and achiral nanostructures are discussed respectively. Finally, we give a short summary and a perspective for the future ultrasensitive chiral sensing.