Photoinduced optical rotation in a racemic mixture of hydrogen peroxide molecules

Abstract

A problem of inducing a required sign of chirality in a racemic mixture of enantiomers of a chiral molecule is analyzed. As an example, a racemic mixture (vapor) of left- and right-handed enantiomers of hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) molecule is considered. It is shown that biharmonic Raman excitation of the splitted due to the left-right conversion internal rotation levels can be effectively used for inducing optical activity in the initially racemic vapor of H2O2 molecules. An experiment to study this photoinduced optical rotation is discussed.