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

Closed-loop recycling of rare liquid samples for gas-phase experiments

Many samples of current interest in molecular physics and physical chemistry exist in the liquid phase and are vaporized for use in gas cells,diffuse gas targets, or molecular gas jets. For some of these techniques, the large sample consumption is a limiting factor. When rare, expensivemolecules such as custom-made chiral molecules or species with isotopic labels are used, wasting them in the exhaust line of the pumps isquite an expensive and inefficient approach. Therefore, we developed a closed-loop recycling system for molecules with vapor pressures belowatmospheric pressure. Once filled, only a few valves have to be adjusted, and a cold trap must be moved after each phase of recycling. Therecycling efficiency per turn exceeds 95%