Rayleigh optical activity: a new spectroscopic technique for chiral samples.

Rayleigh scattering is the elastic collision of a photon with an atom or molecule; a well-known phenomenon, largely responsible for the blue colour and polarisation of light from the sky. It was predicted some fifty years ago that chiral molecules should respond differently to left- and right-handed circular polarisations of light in this context; a phenomenon now referred to as Rayleigh optical activity. Surprisingly, the experimental observation of Rayleigh optical has not yet been reported for small chiral molecules, in spite of potential applications ranging from the robust assignment of absolute configurations to the rapid monitoring of chiral crystal growth in the next generation of pharmaceutical manufacturing techniques.

The aim of the PhD is to develop Rayleigh optical activity as a new spectroscopic technique for chiral samples, by completing the following objectives:

(i) extend the existing theory of Rayleigh optical activity;

(ii) help design and build a dedicated Rayleigh optical activity spectrometer in the laboratory;


(iii) report, for the first time, experimental observations of Rayleigh optical activity for small chiral molecules and

(iv) explore potential applications of Rayleigh optical activity.

This is in interdisciplinary project that involves not only physics but also chemistry and even biology.