Robust chiral optical force via electric dipole interactions, inspired by a sea creature

TL;DR

This paper introduces a robust, strong chiral optical force based on electric dipole interactions, inspired by a sea creature, capable of separating enantiomers of chiral molecules including challenging isotopically chiral types.

Contribution

It proposes a new, highly effective chiral optical force applicable to nearly all chiral molecules, supported by realistic experiments and numerical simulations.

Findings

Force is orders of magnitude stronger than previous methods

Applicable to all chiral molecules, including isotopically chiral

Potential to enable first optical separation of enantiomers

Abstract

Inspired by a sea creature, we identify a robust chiral optical force that pushes the opposite enantiomers of a chiral molecule towards regions of orthogonal linear polarization in an optical field via electric dipole interactions. Our chiral optical force can be orders of magnitude stronger than others proposed to date and applies to essentially all chiral molecules, including isotopically chiral varieties which are notoriously difficult to separate using existing methods. We propose a realistic experiment supported by full numerical simulations, potentially enabling optical separation of opposite enantiomers for the first time.