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A New Twist on Light

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CAMBRIDGE, Mass., April 26, 2011 — Corkscrew-like light whose rotating waves spiral more tightly than other forms of circularly polarized light can discriminate between right- and left-handed versions of chiral molecules, which can’t be superimposed on their mirror images (enantiomer). This “superchiral light” could have possible applications in plasmonic sensing or in selecting the enantiomer of a drug that interacts with proteins or DNA in an optimal way. An electromagnetic field can have the property of chirality, or handedness, which makes it impossible to superimpose the field lines on their mirror...Read full article

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    Published: April 2011
    Glossary
    circularly polarized light
    A light beam whose electric vectors can be broken into two perpendicular elements that have equal amplitudes and that differ in phase by l/4 wavelength.
    enantiomer
    A molecule that is the mirror image of another molecule. The two mirror-image molecules have the same chemical properties; their behavior differs only in reactions with other enantiomers or with polarized light. Also known as an enantiomorph, optical antipode or optical isomer.
    Adam CohenAmericasBasic ScienceBiophotonicschiral moleculescircularly polarized lightcorkscrew-like lightDNAenantiomerLight Sourcesplasmonic sensorsResearch & Technologyrotating polarizationsuperchiral lightYiqiao Tang

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