Two-Photon and Three-Photon Circular Dichroism of Au₃₈ Gold Nanoclusters Enantiomers

While circular dichroism (CD) and optical activity (OA) are well established as optical effects used in characterization of chiral media, harmonic generation and multiphoton circular dichroism are increasingly seen as new, convenient ways of exploring chirality thanks to their operation in the near-infrared range of wavelengths. However, quantitative data about two-photon circular dichroism (2PCD) of organic and inorganic materials are scarce, and even less can be found about three-photon circular dichroism (3PCD). Here, we show that both 2PCD and 3PCD can be readily detected in chiral atomically precise gold nanoclusters via polarimetric Z-scan technique. We provide quantitative data on 2PCD and 3PCD of both enantiomers of Au₃₈(PET)₂₄ nanoclusters, which exhibit extraordinary chiroptical properties arising from the interplay of several levels of molecular organization. Interestingly, the corresponding two- and three-photon dissymmetry factors of Au₃₈(PET)₂₄ enantiomers are significantly enhanced in comparison to the one-photon CD by factors of 178 and 217, respectively.