Illuminating Chirality: Twisting Crystals with Light

Chirality, a key property in biological, chemical, and physical processes, plays a vital role in enabling unique interactions with polarized light and chiral molecules. As a result, chiral solids are highly valued for applications in catalysis, sensing, and optical technologies. However, chirality in crystals has traditionally remained fixed during their formation, as altering their left- or right-handed forms, known as enantiomers, required melting and recrystallizing the material.

In an innovative breakthrough, researchers from the Max Planck Institute and the University of Oxford have devised a method to induce chirality in non-chiral crystals using terahertz light. By employing this novel technique, they can create left- or right-handed enantiomers on demand. Detailed in Science, this advancement opens exciting new opportunities to explore and actively manipulate complex materials in dynamic, non-equilibrium states.

Chirality and Its Role in Crystal Structure

Chirality, the property of objects that cannot align with their mirror images, arises in crystals from specific atomic arrangements that affect interactions with light, electricity, and molecules.

The Hamburg-Oxford team studied antiferro-chiral crystals, which have balanced left- and right-handed substructures, making them overall non-chiral. Using terahertz light, the researchers, led by Andrea Cavalleri, disrupted this balance in boron phosphate (BPO4), inducing chirality on an ultrafast time scale.

“This process relies on nonlinear phononics,” explains lead author Zhiyang Zeng. By exciting specific terahertz vibrational modes, the team created a chiral state lasting several picoseconds. Rotating the light’s polarization by 90 degrees enabled precise control to induce left- or right-handed chirality, an unprecedented achievement, adds co-author Michael Först.

Revolutionary Potential and Future Applications

“This discovery is a significant step forward in dynamically controlling matter at the atomic scale,” says Andrea Cavalleri. The ability to induce chirality in non-chiral materials not only marks a major advancement but also paves the way for groundbreaking applications, such as ultrafast memory devices and advanced optoelectronic platforms.

As researchers continue to explore this innovative approach, it could ultimately revolutionize how we manipulate and engineer materials. This has the potential to unlock new specialized functionalities across a range of scientific and technological domains.

Read Original Article: Scitechdaily

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