Enhanced molecular chiral signals via molecular coherence

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates that using molecular coherence and heterodyne detection significantly enhances chiral signals in Raman optical activity, enabling more sensitive biomolecular chirality studies.

Contribution

It introduces a theoretical approach combining molecular coherence and heterodyne detection to amplify chiral signals in Raman spectroscopy.

Findings

Chiral signals can be increased by up to four orders of magnitude.

Heterodyning allows direct measurement of chiral and achiral parameters.

The method opens new possibilities for biomolecular chirality investigation.

Abstract

One of the most widely used chiroptical spectroscopic methods for studying chiral molecules is Raman optical activity; however, the chiral Raman optical activity signal is extremely weak. Here, we theoretically examine enhanced chiral signals in a system with strongly prepared molecular coherence. We show that the enhanced chiral signal due to strong molecular coherence is up to four orders of magnitude higher than that of the spontaneous Raman optical activity. We discuss several advantages of studying the heterodyned signal obtained by combining the anti-Stokes signal with a local oscillator. The heterodyning allows direct measurement of the ratio of the chiral and achiral parameters. Taking advantage of the molecular coherence and heterodyne detection, the coherent anti-Stokes Raman scattering technique opens up a new potential application for investigation of biomolecular chirality.