Strong magneto-chiral dichroism in a paramagnetic molecular helix observed by hard X-ray.

ABSTRACT: Magneto-chiral dichroism (MχD) is a non-reciprocal, i. e. directional, effect observed in magnetised chiral systems featuring an unbalanced absorption of unpolarised light depending on the direction of the magnetisation. Despite the fundamental interest in a phenomenon breaking both parity and time reversal symmetries, MχD is one of the least investigated aspects of light-matter interaction because of the weakness of the effect in most reported experiments. Here we have exploited the element selectivity of hard X-ray radiation to investigate the magneto-chiral properties of enentiopure crsytals of two isostructural molecular helicoidal chains comprising Cobalt(II) and Manganese (II) ions, respectively. A strong magneto-chiral dichroism, with Kuhn asymmetry of the order of a few percent, ha

SUBMITTER: Sessoli R 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4340522 | biostudies-literature | 2015 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature