Circular dichroism articles from across Nature Portfolio

Here the authors induce asymmetric transmission in planar Fabry–Pérot microcavities by embedding organic thin films exhibiting apparent circular dichroism (ACD), an optical phenomenon based on 2D chirality.

Differential absorption of polarized light, called dichroism, does not exist in amorphous solids due to the disordered arrangements of atoms. Here, the authors demonstrate that dichroism is intrinsic to all solids and can be controlled using helical light beams carrying orbital angular momentum.

2D chiral polaritons are light-matter states with select angular momentum holding technological promise. Here, the authors present the theory of such states, and propose their realisation based on a phenomenon called “apparent circular dichroism”.

Regular nanoparticles amplify the electric component of the radiating field, yet such amplification is generally insufficient to reveal the inherently weak chiral signal of molecules. By simultaneously exciting magnetic and electric modes of a coreshell magnetoelectric nanoparticle, the authors are able to strongly enhance the chiroptical response of the optically active medium.

Vibrational circular dichroism is a spectroscopic technique used to study conformational properties and determine absolute configurations of molecules, but spectra are laborious to interpret. Here, the authors use machine learning to assign absolute configurations and to predict conformer spectra solely from molecular geometries.

We demonstrate surface-enhanced vibrational circular dichroism spectroscopy for chiral mixture detection, enabled by MIR chiral metamaterial platform.

Manipulating the chirality of electron vortices using attosecond metrology allows the clocking of continuum–continuum transitions, bringing the dream of time-resolved quantum physics a little closer.

The chiral nature of phonons in crystals of biomolecules is identified by terahertz spectroscopy, paving the way to a better understanding of biochemical processes.

Chirality is fundamental to chemistry, molecular biology and photonics, but chirality itself is not often in the spotlight. Lewis E. MacKenzie and Patrycja Stachelek report on the 2021 Chiral Materials meeting, which explored how chirality manifests in functional materials, and how it can lead to new technological applications.

Chiroptical molecular switches change chirality in response to light. Christian Petermayer and Henry Dube report a new type of hemiindigo photoswitches that feature axial chiral substituents and are characterized by an unusual decoupling of the absorption and the circular dichroism (CD) spectra.