Abstract

The differential reflection of left and right circularly polarized light from a naturally chiral liquid was enhanced and quantitatively measured under conditions of total reflection. In accord with recent predictions, the observed signal at the critical angle was some 3 orders of magnitude larger than the intrinsic chiral parameters (~10⁻⁷). This is to our knowledge the first observation of molecular optical activity by coherent light scattering.

© 1992 Optical Society of America

Light reflection from a naturally optically active birefringent medium

M. P. Silverman and J. Badoz
J. Opt. Soc. Am. A 7(7) 1163-1173 (1990)

Experimental configurations using optical phase modulation to measure chiral asymmetries in light specularly reflected from a naturally gyrotropic medium

M. P. Silverman, N. Ritchie, G. M. Cushman, and B. Fisher
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Interferometric enhancement of chiral asymmetries: ellipsometry with an optically active Fabry–Perot interferometer

M. P. Silverman and J. Badoz
J. Opt. Soc. Am. A 11(6) 1894-1917 (1994)

Chirality of optical vortex beams reflected from an air-chiral medium interface

Fuping Wu, Zhiwei Cui, Shenyan Guo, Wanqi Ma, and Ju Wang
Opt. Express 30(12) 21687-21697 (2022)

Causality and natural optical activity (chirality)

Werner S. Weiglhofer and Akhlesh Lakhtakia
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