Anisotropy-guided enantiomeric enhancement in alanine using far-UV circularly polarized light

International audienceAll life on Earth is characterized by its asymmetry – both the genetic material and proteins are composed of homochiral monomers. Understanding how this molecular asymmetry initially arose is a key question related to the origins of life. Cometary ice simulations, L-enantiomeric enriched amino acids in meteorites and the detection of circularly polarized electromagnetic radiation in star-forming regions point to a possible interstellar/protostellar generation of stereochemical asymmetry. Based upon our recently recorded anisotropy spectra g(λ) of amino acids in the vacuum-UV range, we subjected amorphous films of racemic 1