Molecular chirality and its monitoring by ultrafast X-ray pulses

Abstract

Major advances in X-ray sources including the development of circularly polarized and orbital angular momentum pulses make it possible to probe matter chirality at unprecedented energy regimes and with Angstr\"om and femtosecond spatiotemporal resolutions. We survey the theory of stationary and time-resolved nonlinear chiral measurements that can be carried out in the X-ray regime using tabletop X-ray sources or large scale (XFEL, synchrotron) facilities. A variety of possible signals and their information content are surveyed.