Observation of Rayleigh Optical Activity for Chiral Molecules: A New Chiroptical Tool

2025/07/26 by Duncan McArthur, McArthur, Duncan, Emmanouil I. Alexakis +17 · 1 voice · 1 citation
Chemistry · Physics and Astronomy · #Molecular spectroscopy and chirality #Origins and Evolution of Life #Synthesis and Properties of Aromatic Compounds

paper · pdf · doi:10.1021/acs.jpca.5c05516

openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex publication_date 2025/12/04 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/22

Abstract

By measuring a small circularly polarized component in the scattered light, we report the first observation of Rayleigh optical activity (RayOA) for isotropic samples of chiral molecules, namely the two enantiomers of α-pinene in neat liquid form. Our work validates fundamental theoretical predictions made over 50 years ago and expands the chiroptical toolkit.

Citations

• Development of the Colle-Salvetti correlation-energy formula into a functional of the electron density
• A new hybrid exchange–correlation functional using the Coulomb-attenuating method (CAM-B3LYP)
• Density-functional thermochemistry. III. The role of exact exchange
• Theory of Rayleigh-Brillouin optical activity light scattering applicable to chiral liquids

Cited by

• Circular Dichroism without absorption in isolated chiral dielectric Mie particles

Discussions

• So great to see this result officially out - five years after Rob Cameron kicked it all off! Thanks especially to Manos Alexakis and Duncan McArthur in the lab - and of course the whole team. doi.org/ [bsky, 3 points, 0 comments]

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