intrinsic properties of chiral free molecules studied by synchrotron radiation enantioselective ARPES

Dissymmetry on macroscopic and microscopic scale plays a role of paramount importance in life science. The unknown origin of the homochirality in terrestrial life and the high enantio-selectivity in processes involving biologically important chiral molecules are among the most intriguing aspects to study in natural phenomena and related chiral technologies. Investigating of molecular enantiomeric nature has therefore a strong impact in chemistry in various sub-areas. Very few investigations using energetic photons have been accomplished to study chiral systems to date. Recent development of third generation synchrotron machines has allowed intense sources with high degree of circularly polarized light to be used in experiments. Such sources can revealed Circular Dichroism in unoriented chiral molecules by photoabsorption and angle-resolved photoelectron spectroscopy (ARPES) by exciting valence or inner-shell electrons. Recent results obtained by ARPES studying the methyl-oxirane enantiomers [1,2], as model chiral systems, will be shown along with the most recent and state-of-the-art theoretical predictions [3]. Perspectives in these studies will be discussed