Anomalous Dispersion of the Faraday Effect in Haemoglobin and Myoglobin

Abstract

THE Faraday effect, namely, the magnetic rotation of the plane of polarization of light, was discovered in 1846 (ref. 1). However, except for Shashoua's studies^2,3 the anomalous dispersion of the Faraday effect in the polyatomic molecules has not been extensively investigated. Valuable information concerning the nature of electronic levels of molecules and macromolecules, and their configuration and conformation, can, in fact, be obtained from the anomalous dispersion of the Faraday effect^4–9. The Faraday effect is closely connected with the Zeeman effect (see, for example, ref. 9); it is well known that the Zeeman effect plays an important part in spectroscopy, in the investigation of the structure of atoms and other polyelectronic systems. There are good reasons for suggesting that the anomalous dispersion of the Faraday effect is very susceptible to any change of the molecular structure.