Probing molecular chirality by coherent optical absorption spectra

TL;DR

This paper introduces a method to detect molecular chirality by analyzing how coherent optical absorption spectra depend on quantum dynamics driven by external fields, enabling identification of enantiomers.

Contribution

It presents a novel approach linking quantum dynamics of cyclic three-level molecules to their optical absorption spectra for chirality detection.

Findings

Chirality-dependent absorption spectra are achievable with designed external fields.

The method can identify molecular chirality and measure enantiomer excess.

Feasibility demonstrated with molecules in hollow-core photonic crystal fibers.

Abstract

We propose an approach to sensitively probe the chirality of molecules by measuring their coherent optical absorption spectra. It is shown that quantum dynamics of the cyclic three-level chiral molecules driven by appropriately-designed external fields is total-phase dependent. This will result in chirality-dependent absorption spectra for the probe field. As a consequence, these absorption spectra can be utilized to identify molecular chirality and determinate enantiomer excess. The feasibility of the proposal with chiral molecules confined in hollow-core photonic crystal fiber (HC-PCF) is also discussed.