3 research outputs found
Observation of enhanced chiral asymmetries in the inner-shell photoionization of uniaxially oriented methyloxirane enantiomers
Most large molecules are chiral in their structure: they exist as two
enantiomers, which are mirror images of each other. Whereas the rovibronic
sublevels of two enantiomers are almost identical, it turns out that the
photoelectric effect is sensitive to the absolute configuration of the ionized
enantiomer - an effect termed Photoelectron Circular Dichroism (PECD). Our
comprehensive study demonstrates that the origin of PECD can be found in the
molecular frame electron emission pattern connecting PECD to other fundamental
photophysical effects as the circular dichroism in angular distributions
(CDAD). Accordingly, orienting a chiral molecule in space enhances the PECD by
a factor of about 10
Absolute configuration from different multifragmentation pathways in light-induced coulomb explosion imaging
The absolute configuration of individual small molecules in the gas phase can be determined directly by light-induced Coulomb explosion imaging (CEI). Herein, this approach is demonstrated for ionization with a single X-ray photon from a synchrotron light source, leading to enhanced efficiency and faster fragmentation as compared to previous experiments with a femtosecond laser. In addition, it is shown that even incomplete fragmentation pathways of individual molecules from a racemic CHBrClF sample can give access to the absolute configuration in CEI. This leads to a significant increase of the applicability of the method as compared to the previously reported complete break-up into atomic ions and can pave the way for routine stereochemical analysis of larger chiral molecules by light-induced CEI