Chiral rare earth nanomaterials, which impart optical activity through chiral structures or ligands, possess promising application potential in optoelectronic displays, biosensing, information encryption, and catalysis due to unique properties like circularly polarized luminescence, exceptional photostability, and tunable optics. This review systematically summarizes recent advancements, focusing on synthetic strategies, distinctive optical properties, and experimental demonstrations of applications across various fields. Finally, prospects and challenges for future development are discussed. These studies advance the understanding of circularly polarized luminescence and enable the flexible design and fabrication of chiral rare earth nanomaterials with engineered functionalities, addressing practical challenges in optoelectronic displays and biomedicine.

Equilibrium geometries and properties of self-assembled (InN)_12n (n = 1–9) nanoclusters (nanowires and nanosheets) are studied using the GGA-PBE (general gradient approximation with Perdew–Burke–Ernzerh) method. The relative stabilities and growth patterns of semiconductor (InN)_12n nanoclusters are investigated. The odd-numbered nano-size (InN)_12n (n is odd) have weaker stabilities compared with the neighboring even-numbered (InN)_12n (n is even) ones. The most stable (InN)₄₈ nanosheet is selected as a building unit for self-assembled nano-size film materials. In particular, the energy gaps of InN nanoclusters show an even–odd oscillation and reflect that (InN)_12n (n = 1–9) nanoclusters are good optoelectronic materials and nanodevices due to their energy gaps in the visible region. Interestingly, the calculated energy gaps for (InN)_12n nanowires varies slightly compared with that of individual (InN)₁₂ units. Additionally, the predicted natural atomic populations of In atoms in (InN)_12n nanoclusters show that the stabilities of (InN)_12n nanoclusters is enhanced through the ionic bonding and covalent bonding of (InN)_12n (n = 1–9) nanoclusters.

The enhancement and selective excitation of coherent anti-Stokes Raman scattering (CARS) and the suppression of background noise are very important problems for real-time detection at the single-molecule level. Optimizing the plasmonic substrate to ensure that all the hot spots of the pump, probe, Stokes, and anti-Stokes light are at the same position is the key to increasing the CARS signal to reach the level of single-molecule detection. The selective excitation of the target CARS peak and the suppression of the other peaks are the key to improving the signal-to-noise ratio. In this paper, we present a theoretical study to control the selective excitation and enhancement of any one of the three CARS peaks using the Fano resonance of a disk-ring structure. By optimizing the modulation of the pump, Stokes, and probe pulse, one CARS peak is maximized, while the other two are suppressed to zero. Fano resonance is applied to simultaneously enhance the four surface plasmon modes of the pump, probe, Stokes, and anti-Stokes light and to ensure that all the hot spots are located at the same position by adjusting the size of the disk-ring structure. The hot spots of the four pulses are concentrated in the disk-ring gap with a deviation distance of less than 2 nm, and the intensity of the CARS is enhanced by 1.43 × 10¹² times, which is much higher than the requirement of single-molecule detection. The time, frequency, and phase distribution of the input and the response of the four pulses are studied in detail. It was found that the selective excitation and the spectra of CARS are both well preserved.