Nonlinear helical dichroism in chiral and achiral molecules

What is it about?

Here we demonstrate, first direct observation of HD in both chiral and achiral molecules in liquid phase without the use of any intermediary. Our approach is based on probing helicity-dependent nonlinear absorption of asymmetric helical light beams propagating through the liquid sample. We model light-matter interactions by considering induced multipole moments to show that HD arises from coupling of electric dipole and quadrupole terms, and can be tuned.

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Why is it important?

Our work shifts the paradigm of chiroptical detection from using laser polarization to optical helical phase. It opens new, so far unexplored direction of research in next generation chiroptical spectroscopy.