Ultrafast chiroptical spectroscopy: Monitoring optical activity in quick time

Abstract

Optical activity spectroscopy provides rich structural information of biologically important molecules in condensed phases. However, a few intrinsic problems of conventional method based on electric field intensity measurement scheme prohibited its extension to time domain technique. We have recently developed new types of optical activity spectroscopic methods capable of measuring chiroptical signals with femtosecond pulses. It is believed that these novel approaches will be applied to a variety of ultrafast chiroptical studies.

Keywords

• optical activity
• molecular chirality
• femtosecond spectroscopy
• heterodyned detection