Metamaterials and chiral sensing: a review of fundamentals and applications

Chirality, a property of broken mirror symmetry, prevails in nature. Chiral molecules show different biochemical behaviors to their mirror molecules. For left or right circularly polarized lights, the fundamental chiral states of electromagnetic fields interact differently with chiral matter, and this effect has been used as a powerful tool for the detection of chiral molecules. This optical sensing, also termed chiral sensing, is not only easy to implement but also non-invasive to the analytes. However, the measurements made by the optical sensing of chiral molecules are challenging, as chiroptical signals are extremely weak. Recent years have seen active research efforts into metamaterial and plasmonic platforms for manipulating local fields to enhance chiroptical signals. This metamaterial approach offers new possibilities of chiral sensing with high sensitivity. Here, we review the recent advances in chiral sensing using metamaterial and plasmonic platforms. In addition, we explain the underlying principles behind the enhancement of chiroptical signals and highlight practically efficient chiral sensing platforms. We also provide perspectives that shed light on design considerations for chiral sensing metamaterials and discuss the possibility of other types of chiral sensing based on resonant metamaterials.