Quantum optical rotatory dispersion

Autor(en)

Nora Tischler, Mario Krenn, Robert Fickler, Xavier Vidal, Anton Zeilinger, Gabriel Molina-Terriza

Abstrakt

The phenomenon of molecular optical activity manifests itself as the rotation of the plane of linear polarization when light passes through chiral media. Measurements of optical activity and its wavelength dependence, that is, optical rotatory dispersion, can reveal information about intricate properties of molecules, such as the three-dimensional arrangement of atoms comprising a molecule. Given a limited probe power, quantum metrology offers the possibility of outperforming classical measurements. This has particular appeal when samples may be damaged by high power, which is a potential concern for chiroptical studies. We present the first experiment in which multiwavelength polarization-entangled photon pairs are used to measure the optical activity and optical rotatory dispersion exhibited by a solution of chiral molecules. Our work paves the way for quantum-enhanced measurements of chirality, with potential applications in chemistry, biology, materials science, and the pharmaceutical industry. The scheme that we use for probing wavelength dependence not only allows one to surpass the information extracted per photon in a classical measurement but also can be used for more general differential measurements.

Organisation(en)

Quantenoptik, Quantennanophysik und Quanteninformation

Externe Organisation(en)

Macquarie University, Österreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften (ÖAW)

Journal

Science Advances

Band

2

Anzahl der Seiten

5

ISSN

2375-2548

DOI

https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.1601306

Publikationsdatum

10-2016

Peer-reviewed

Ja

ÖFOS 2012

103026 Quantenoptik

Link zum Portal

https://ucrisportal.univie.ac.at/de/publications/a4b5abd4-a8cc-43a1-91e4-dc6ef3f9ae3e