Microwaves

In recent years there has been growing interest in the use of microwaves to probe and even manipulate chiral molecules in the gas phase via their rotational states.

Chiral rotational spectroscopy (CRS) is a hybrid microwave-optical spectroscopic technique proposed by RPC and collaborators that combines the incredible precision inherent to standard microwave spectroscopy with the chiral sensitivity inherent to natural optical rotation [1,2,3,4]. Potential applications include the extraction of oriented chiroptical information, the analysis of complicated mixtures without the need for prior separations, absolute measurements of enantiomeric excess and the study of isotopic molecular chirality, as well as combinations of these.

References

  1. R. P. Cameron, J. B. Götte and S. M. Barnett, Physical Review A 94, 032505 (2016).
  2. R. P. Cameron, J. B. Götte, S. M. Barnett and A. M. Yao, Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A 375, 20150433 (2016).
  3. J. B. Götte, R. P. Cameron and S. M. Barnett, Proc. SPIE 10120, Complex Light and Optical Forces XI, 101200N (2017).
  4. R. P. Cameron, J. B. Götte and S. M. Barnett, Chapter 20: Chiral Rotational Spectroscopy in Chiral Analysis Advances in Spectroscopy, Chromatography and Emerging Methods (Elsevier, 2018).