Metasurface analogues of molecular diastereomers from hierarchical multiscale chiral interactions with biomolecules

Chirality occurs at molecular and nanoscales, but these forms of handedness are usually treated independently. We demonstrate a hybrid chiral state, termed a meta-diastereomer, in which molecular chirality and nanoscale structural chirality are coupled at an interface to determine the optical response, with distinct states defined by the relative handedness of the two components, as in molecular diastereomers. Unlike strategies that rely on enhanced near-field optical chirality, the coupling here arises from a charged, polarisable interfacial layer that perturbs electromagnetic boundary conditions. The resulting reduction in symmetry renders linear optical observables stereostructurally informative, in the same way that molecular diastereomers can be distinguished using non-chiral measurement techniques. This behaviour distinguishes native versus denatured protein layers and differentiates protein-protein binding states in a model antigen-antibody system. These results identify electromagnetic boundary conditions as a mechanism by which chirality can be transmitted across length scales and provide a boundary-condition-based framework for hierarchical chirality at biomolecule-metasurface interfaces.

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Publication Details

Journal
Nature Communications
Published
2026-04-22
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-026-72200-6
Primary Topic
Metamaterials and Metasurfaces Applications
Type
article
Field-Weighted Citation Impact
0.00

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article

Metasurface analogues of molecular diastereomers from hierarchical multiscale chiral interactions with biomolecules

Adrian J. Lapthorn, Affar S. Karimullah, Dominic J. P. Koyroytsaltis-McQuire, Paula L. Lalaguna et al.
Nature Communications
Metamaterials and Metasurfaces Applications
article

Metasurface analogues of molecular diastereomers from hierarchical multiscale chiral interactions with biomolecules

Adrian J. Lapthorn, Affar S. Karimullah, Dominic J. P. Koyroytsaltis-McQuire, Paula L. Lalaguna, Malcolm Kadodwala, Shun Hashiyada, Shailendra K. Chaubey, Nikolaj Gadegaard, Giuliano Siligardi, Tamás Jávorfí, Yoshito Tanaka, Rahul Kumar
article en

Abstract

Chirality occurs at molecular and nanoscales, but these forms of handedness are usually treated independently. We demonstrate a hybrid chiral state, termed a meta-diastereomer, in which molecular chirality and nanoscale structural chirality are coupled at an interface to determine the optical response, with distinct states defined by the relative handedness of the two components, as in molecular diastereomers. Unlike strategies that rely on enhanced near-field optical chirality, the coupling here arises from a charged, polarisable interfacial layer that perturbs electromagnetic boundary conditions. The resulting reduction in symmetry renders linear optical observables stereostructurally informative, in the same way that molecular diastereomers can be distinguished using non-chiral measurement techniques. This behaviour distinguishes native versus denatured protein layers and differentiates protein-protein binding states in a model antigen-antibody system. These results identify electromagnetic boundary conditions as a mechanism by which chirality can be transmitted across length scales and provide a boundary-condition-based framework for hierarchical chirality at biomolecule-metasurface interfaces.

Nature Communications
Hokkaido University (JP), Diamond Light Source (GB), Japan Science and Technology Agency (JP), University of Glasgow (GB)
Diamond Light Source, UK Research and Innovation, Leverhulme Trust, Japan Society for the Promotion of Science London, Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council, Japan Society for the Promotion of Science, Japan Science and Technology Agency, Precursory Research for Embryonic Science and Technology
Openalex Percentile: Top 20%
Metamaterials and Metasurfaces Applications
DOIOpen Access PDFOpenAlex
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