Work

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

Year: 2026

Type: article

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.

Source: Nanophotonics

DOI: 10.1002/nap2.70189