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Title: Scattering optical activity of chiral molecules: circular intensity differential scattering and circular differential imaging

Technical Report ·
OSTI ID:5087761

Theoretical treatments are presented for two new techniques based on the ability of chiral molecules to preferentially scatter or absorb right and left circularly polarized light: circular intensity differential scattering (CIDS) and circular differential imaging (CDI). For CIDS, a theory is presented based on classical electrodynamics for scattering in the second Born approximation. The extension of the CIDS theory to the second Born approximation has resulted in new behavior for forward scattered light and systems of isotropic scatterers. Next, a quantum mechanical theory for CIDS is presented. For CDI a theory is presented, based in part on the classical theory for CIDS mentioned above. Two types of differential images are possible: a) darkfield images formed from light reflected or scattered by the sample, and b) brightfield images formed from light transmitted through the sample. The sign and magnitude of each feature in a circular differential image are proportional to the optical activity of the corresponding feature in the sample. For incident light with wavelengths in the visible, the darkfield circular differential images are mostly sensitive to large features with dimensions similar to the wavelength, while the brightfield images are most sensitive to the short range molecular order.

Research Organization:
Lawrence Berkeley Lab., CA (USA)
DOE Contract Number:
AC03-76SF00098; AT03-82ER60090
OSTI ID:
5087761
Report Number(s):
LBL-17472; ON: DE84010712
Resource Relation:
Other Information: Portions are illegible in microfiche products. Thesis
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English