All-optically tunable enantio-selectivity and chirality transfer

TL;DR

This paper introduces a novel all-optical method for tunably controlling chirality transfer in atomic media, enabling deterministic enantio-selection and advancing asymmetric synthesis techniques.

Contribution

It presents a new theoretical and experimental approach for optically controlling chirality transfer using a helical field in neutral atomic systems.

Findings

Demonstrated tunable control of chirality transfer

Achieved deterministic enantio-sensitive manipulation

Enabled efficient manipulation of asymmetric synthesis

Abstract

Detecting and controlling the chirality of materials play an essential role in exploring nature, providing new avenues for material creation, discrimination, and manipulation. In such tasks, chiral reagents are essential in defining or enhancing the chiral dichroism response. However, ignoring their influences on the symmetry of the medium hamper the ability to control and induce asymmetric synthesis. Here, we propose a simple but versatile chirality transfer method for synthesizing and manipulating the chirality of medium. The proposed method induces the dispersion of light in a neutral atomic system, allowing to deterministically and tunably control the chirality transfer using a helical field. First, we theoretically analyze the mechanism for this optically induced chirality transfer. Afterwards, we experimentally study the enantio-sensitive feature of the medium exposed to the auxiliary chiral field. This result can be suppressed or enhanced in a deterministic enantio-selection, opening up an efficient way to manipulate asymmetric synthesis.