A nanophotonic-based spectropolarimeter for high-sensitivity circular dichroism detection – NanoSpeCD

This project proposes to develop a new instrument based on resonant optical nanostructures allowing 1- to increase strongly the interactions between light and chiral molecules. 2- to reduce the detection volume of these molecules and 3- to increase the detection sensitivity with the ultimate goal to detect single chiral molecules. To this aim, we propose here to develop a polarimeter based on a completely new type of achiral nanostructures, which, once excited by a light without helicity, allow to create purely chiral nanosources of light. The polarimeter will be then validated with reference chiral objects in solution and then adsorbed on the surface of the sensing metasurface.
The project is organized in three different interacting workpackages and bears on the expertises of four different laboratories: Institut des NanoSciences de Paris (INSP), Laboratoire de Réactivité de Surfaces (LRS), Institut Fresnel (IF) and Institut Parisien de Chimie Moléculaire (IPCM).