Seminars Archive

Chirality in x-ray absorption spectroscopy

Abstract
Since the days of Kelvin and Pasteur, the importance of mirror image properties of matter have been recognised as playing a key role in the structure of biomolecules and their discriminatory interactions. The XNCD spectra reported were carried out at the ESRF beamline ID12A. The dissymmetry g= 2(I_L - I_R)/(I_L + I_R ) factor found is approx 10E-3, of the same order of magnitude as observed in the visible/uv region. Calculations using Multiple Scattering Theory (MST) are in excellent agreement with the measured CD in the near edge region (about 100 eV from the rising edge) and show that the effect arises from the electric dipole-electric quadrupole interference mechanism.