Randomized trial demonstrates enhanced enantioselective optical trapping in silicon nanodisks, suggesting improved chiral analysis methods.
Optical enantioseparation of nanoscale matter is fundamentally limited by the intrinsic weakness of chiroptical forces compared to the dominant achiral gradient forces and thermal fluctuations. Conventional plasmonic approaches typically enhance chirality at the cost of amplifying achiral attraction and heating. Here, we overcome this trade‐off by exploiting longitudinal Mie resonances in silicon nanodisks. By employing an azimuthally–radially polarized beam (ARPB) illumination, we excite longitudinal Mie resonances, with strong optical chirality gradients and comparatively uniform electric field intensities. Specifically, magnetic quadrupole (MQ) resonances effectively decouple enantioselective forces from the achiral background, providing uniquely favorable conditions for enantioselective optical trapping. Combining numerical simulations with Kramers' escape‐rate theory, we demonstrate a robust and highly selective trapping system that is also experimentally accessible. We predict trapping selectivity ratios above 100 for particles with Pasteur parameters and maintain selectivities above 2 even for weakly chiral analytes . These results establish longitudinal Mie resonances in high‐index dielectric nanostructures as a promising noninvasive platform for all‐optical chiral analysis and enantiomer separation.
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Serrera et al. (2026) studied this question.
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