Observation of optical chemical shift by precision nuclear spin optical rotation measurements and calculations

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates precise measurements of nuclear spin optical rotation (NSOR) signals in organic liquids, revealing chemical environment information and confirming theoretical predictions through experiments and calculations.

Contribution

It provides the first high-precision NSOR measurements across various organic liquids and validates quantum-mechanical calculations of NSOR signals.

Findings

NSOR signals vary distinctly among different organic compounds

Experimental results align well with theoretical calculations

NSOR can differentiate chemical environments at the nuclear level

Abstract

Nuclear spin optical rotation (NSOR) is a recently developed technique for detection of nuclear magnetic resonance via rotation of light polarization, instead of the usual long-range magnetic fields. NSOR signals depend on hyperfine interactions with virtual optical excitations, giving new information about the nuclear chemical environment. We use a multi-pass optical cell to perform first precision measurements of NSOR signals for a range of organic liquids and find clear distinction between proton signals for different compounds, in agreement with our earlier predictions. Detailed first principles quantum-mechanical NSOR calculations are found to be in good agreement with the measurements.