Figure 4. ‘Writing', ‘erasing' and ‘reading' of the 3D plasmonic nanostructures by light.

(a) Reversible conversion of the plasmonic nanostructures between the relaxed and locked right-handed states by ultraviolet (UV) and visible (VIS) light illumination, which performs the ‘erasing' and ‘writing' behaviour, respectively. The resulting conformation states are probed by circularly polarized light (CPL) in real time, which performs the ‘reading' behaviour. (b) CD intensity recorded at 720 nm (Fig. 3c) during alternative UV and VIS illumination in multiple cycles. Excellent reversibility of the chiroptical response is achieved between the two states with large signal modulations. The error bars represent one s.d. from the mean.