Circular dichroism simulated spectra of chiral gold nanoclusters: A dipole approximation

Circular dichroism (CD) spectra of chiral bare and thiol-passivated gold nanoclusters have been calculated within the dipole approximation. The calculated CD spectra show features that allow us to distinguish between clusters with different indexes of chirality. The main factor responsible of the differences in the CD lineshapes is the distribution of interatomic distances that characterize the chiral cluster geometry. These results provide theoretical support for the quantification of chirality and its measurement, using the CD lineshapes of chiral metal nanoclusters.