Chiral assemblies of plasmonic nanoparticles are known for strong circular dichroism but not for high optical asymmetry, which is limited by the unfavorable combination of electrical and magnetic field components compounded by strong scattering. Here, we show that these limitations can be overcome by the long-range organization of nanoparticles in a manner similar to the liquid crystals and found in helical assemblies of gold nanorods with human islet amyloid polypeptides. A strong, polarization-dependent spectral shift and the reduced scattering of energy states with antiparallel orientation of dipoles activated in assembled helices increased optical asymmetry g-factors by a factor of more than 4600. The liquid crystal–like color variations and the nanorod-accelerated fibrillation enable drug screening in complex biological media. Improvement of long-range order can also provide structural guidance for the design of materials with high optical asymmetry.

已知等离激元纳米粒子的手性组装体具有很强的圆二色性，但不具有高光学不对称性，这受到电场和磁场分量的不利组合（由强散射复合）的限制。在这里，我们表明可以通过类似于液晶的纳米粒子的长距离组织来克服这些限制，并且可以在金纳米棒与人胰岛淀粉样多肽的螺旋组装物中发现纳米粒子。在组装的螺旋中激活的偶极子的反平行方向导致强烈的，与偏振有关的光谱偏移和能量态的减少散射，增加了光学不对称性g-因子超过4600。像液晶一样的颜色变化和纳米棒加速的原纤化可以在复杂的生物介质中进行药物筛选。远距离有序的改进还可以为具有高光学不对称性的材料设计提供结构指导。