The
astrophysical phenomenon of mimetic helical magnetic field
(h
B)-assisted self-assembly is herein
introduced to build helical superstructures that display chiroptical
properties. As a building block, magnetoplasmonic (MagPlas) Ag@Fe3O4 core–shell nanoparticles are used to
guide plasmonic Ag nanoparticles onto a helical magnetic flux. The
chirality of the assembled helical structures and tailored circular
dichroism are successfully tuned in real time, and the handedness
of the assembled structures is dynamically switched by the h
B at the millisecond level, which is at least
6000-fold faster than other template-assisted methods. The peak position
of circular dichroism can be reconfigured by altering the plasmonic
resonance or coupling by controlling the size of the Ag core and magnetic
flux density. The h
B-induced chirality
modulation represents a method to control the polarization state of
light at the nexus of plasmonics, magnetic self-assembly, colloidal
science, liquid crystals, and chirality. It presents active and dynamic
chiral assemblies of magnetoplasmonic nanomaterials, enabling further
practical applications in optical devices.