Enantioselective Separation and Negative Transport of Chiral Particles via Optical Needle Fields

ABSTRACT Chirality is a fundamental property of life and a critical determinant of material properties, making the development of efficient, rapid, and nondestructive chiral detection and separation methods imperative. Here, we advance beyond conventional two‐dimensional chiral manipulation by introducing a tailored optical needle field that enables enantioselective, long‐range, and three‐dimensional control. Generated by the tight focusing of an annular beam, this unique field retains chiral sensitivity and facilitates the simultaneous enantioselective separation, size‐based sorting, and optical pulling of chiral particles. Moreover, we engineer a dual‐needle configuration that achieves the spatially separated and concurrent negative transport of both enantiomers within a unified system, offering tunable separation and transport distances. By integrating optical pulling with chiral light–matter interactions, this work establishes a robust and versatile platform for all‐optical, high‐throughput chiral sorting, with promising applications in pharmaceutical science, biochemical sensing, and nanotechnology.

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Publication Details

Journal
Nanophotonics
Published
2026-06-27
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1002/nap2.70189
Primary Topic
Orbital Angular Momentum in Optics
Type
article
Field-Weighted Citation Impact
0.00

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article

Enantioselective Separation and Negative Transport of Chiral Particles via Optical Needle Fields

Xiaohao Xu, Manman Li, Yuan Zhou, Shaohui Yan et al.
Nanophotonics
Orbital Angular Momentum in Optics
article

Enantioselective Separation and Negative Transport of Chiral Particles via Optical Needle Fields

Xiaohao Xu, Manman Li, Yuan Zhou, Shaohui Yan, 姚保利, Qiang Zhang, Wenyu Gao, Xu Chen
article en

Abstract

ABSTRACT Chirality is a fundamental property of life and a critical determinant of material properties, making the development of efficient, rapid, and nondestructive chiral detection and separation methods imperative. Here, we advance beyond conventional two‐dimensional chiral manipulation by introducing a tailored optical needle field that enables enantioselective, long‐range, and three‐dimensional control. Generated by the tight focusing of an annular beam, this unique field retains chiral sensitivity and facilitates the simultaneous enantioselective separation, size‐based sorting, and optical pulling of chiral particles. Moreover, we engineer a dual‐needle configuration that achieves the spatially separated and concurrent negative transport of both enantiomers within a unified system, offering tunable separation and transport distances. By integrating optical pulling with chiral light–matter interactions, this work establishes a robust and versatile platform for all‐optical, high‐throughput chiral sorting, with promising applications in pharmaceutical science, biochemical sensing, and nanotechnology.

NanophotonicsVol. 15(13)
Xi'an Institute of Optics and Precision Mechanics (CN), University of Chinese Academy of Sciences (CN)
National Natural Science Foundation of China, Natural Science Foundation of Shaanxi Province
Openalex Percentile: Top 6%
Orbital Angular Momentum in Optics
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