Observation of enhanced chiral asymmetries in the inner-shell photoionization of uniaxially oriented methyloxirane enantiomers

TL;DR

This study demonstrates that orienting chiral molecules like methyloxirane enhances photoelectron circular dichroism (PECD) signals by about tenfold, linking PECD to fundamental photophysical effects and molecular orientation.

Contribution

It reveals that uniaxial orientation of chiral molecules significantly amplifies PECD, providing new insights into the molecular frame electron emission patterns.

Findings

PECD is sensitive to molecular absolute configuration.

Uniaxial orientation enhances PECD by approximately ten times.

PECD is connected to circular dichroism in angular distributions (CDAD).

Abstract

Most large molecules are chiral in their structure: they exist as two enantiomers, which are mirror images of each other. Whereas the rovibronic sublevels of two enantiomers are almost identical, it turns out that the photoelectric effect is sensitive to the absolute configuration of the ionized enantiomer - an effect termed Photoelectron Circular Dichroism (PECD). Our comprehensive study demonstrates that the origin of PECD can be found in the molecular frame electron emission pattern connecting PECD to other fundamental photophysical effects as the circular dichroism in angular distributions (CDAD). Accordingly, orienting a chiral molecule in space enhances the PECD by a factor of about 10.