Chiral Symmetry Breaking in Colloidal Metal Nanoparticle Solutions by Circularly Polarized Light

Shape symmetry breaking in the formation of inorganic nanostructures is of large current interest. It was typically achieved through growth of colloidal nanoparticles with adsorbed chiral molecules. Photochemical processes induced through asymmetric plasmon excitation by circularly polarized light in surface immobilized nanostructures also led to symmetry breaking. Here we show that chiral symmetry breaking can be achieved on randomly rotating gold@silver core-shell nanobars in colloidal solution, by means of circularly polarized illumination, where orientational averaging does not eliminate the symmetry breaking of an asymmetric plasmon-induced galvanic replacement reaction. Different morphological effects that are produced by circularly vs. linearly polarized light illumination demonstrate the intricate effect of light polarization on the localized plasmonic-induced photochemical response. The symmetry breaking becomes smaller in more symmetric geometrical shapes such as triangular nanoprisms and nanocubes, down to zero in spherical ones. The symmetry breaking rises when the nanobars are immobilized on a substrate and illuminated from a single direction.