Abstract
This chapter describes a research on chiral metal structures on the nanoscale (chiral metal nanostructures) formed by the irradiation of an optical vortex with orbital angular momentum. The purpose of the present research has been to clarify the relationship between the orbital, spin, and total angular momenta of light and nanostructures through laser ablation processes. As a result, the orbital angular momentum of the optical vortex is transferred to the metal so as to create a chiral nanostructure response by the optical vortex helicity.
The chirality of the nanostructures can also be selectively controlled merely by changing the sign of the total angular momentum. The total angular momentum of light further determines the spiral spatial frequency of the chiral nanostructures.
By adjusting the numerical aperture of a focusing objective lens and the incident laser power, a chiral nanostructure with a tip curvature of less than 40 nm, corresponding to 1/25th of the laser wavelength (1,064 nm), was successfully fabricated. The chemical composition of the nanostructure was almost identical to that of the substrate. A two-dimensional 5 × 5 nanostructure array was also fabricated.
We also address a chiral surface relief (termed ‘conch’-shaped relief) formation in an azo-polymer through photo-isomerization process.
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Acknowledgments
The authors acknowledge financial support of a Research Grant (CREST) from Japan Science and Technology Agency. We would also like to thank Ms. Mizuki Watabe from Chiba University and Professor R. Morita from Hokkaido University for their productive helps.
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Omatsu, T., Aoki, N., Miyamoto, K. (2015). Vortex Lasers Twist Materials to Form Chiral Nanostructures. In: Ishii, H., Kudo, K., Nakayama, T., Ueno, N. (eds) Electronic Processes in Organic Electronics. Springer Series in Materials Science, vol 209. Springer, Tokyo. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-4-431-55206-2_19
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-4-431-55206-2_19
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