The London Centre for Nanotechnology are delighted to host Dr David Ayuso for the first Lunch-and-Learn Seminar of this academic year! Taking place at 12:00 – 13:00 on Oct 20th, 2025. In person for Imperial staff and students only in RSM G01 (Imperial, South Kensington). There is also an option to join online (MS Teams details below) for all LCN members.
Title: Twisting light in 3D for small-molecule chiral sensing and manipulation
Abstract: Apart from their well-established roles in nanotechnology or drug discovery, small chiral molecules are emerging as biomarkers for early-stage diagnosis, prognosis, and personalised medicine [1]. For instance, small variations in the concentration of D-serine in biofluids containing a large excess of L-serine have been correlated to Alzheimer’s disease. However, current optical methods lack the sensitivity to detect such tiny differences because circularly polarised light does not fit the size of a small molecule, whereas chemical approaches (e.g. liquid chromatography) are not sufficiently rapid or cost-effective.
In this seminar, I will show how we can overcome these limitations by shaping light’s polarisation in 3D [2-5] so that the tip of the electric-field vector draws a chiral Lissajous figure in time. Such locally chiral light can drive ultrafast electronic currents inside the molecules that interact with the chiral molecular potential in a highly enantiosensitive manner, taking us from 0.1% up to 100% chiral sensitivity.
[1] Y. Liu et al, Nat Rev Chem 7, 355 (2023)
[2] D. Ayuso et al, Nat Photon 13, 866 (2019)
[3] D. Ayuso et al, Nat Commun 12, 3951 (2021)
[4] J. Vogwell et al, Science Advances 9, eadj1429 (2023)
[5] N. Mayer et al, Nat Photon 18, 1155 (2024)
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