Measurement of weak chiral optical rotation of methyl lactate vapor via Cavity enhanced polarization spectroscopy

The purpose of this thesis is the demonstration of the utilization of a polarimeter developed to measure extremely weak optical rotations with unprecedented sensitivity. In this work, the samples of interest were chiral vapors. More specifically, we focused on methyl lactate. The measurements were based on a Cavity Ring-Down scheme, employing two signal reversals, allowing us to obtain results for the absolute optical rotation of this gaseous sample. We acquired measurements with a sensitivity of ~50 μdeg/√Hz, while state-of-the-art commercial polarimeters can only reach a sensitivity down to ~5 mdeg/√Hz. This work opens the way for measurements of the chiral optical rotation of ethyl-1-d-benzene, which is expected to have small optical activity, as it is chiral only due to isotopic substitution.The purpose of this thesis is the demonstration of the utilization of a polarimeter developed to measure extremely weak optical rotations with unprecedented sensitivity. In this work, the samples of interest were chiral vapors. More specifically, we focused on methyl lactate. The measurements were based on a Cavity Ring-Down scheme, employing two signal reversals, allowing us to obtain results for the absolute optical rotation of this gaseous sample. We acquired measurements with a sensitivity of ~50 μdeg/√Hz, while state-of-the-art commercial polarimeters can only reach a sensitivity down to ~5 mdeg/√Hz. This work opens the way for measurements of the chiral optical rotation of ethyl-1-d-benzene, which is expected to have small optical activity, as it is chiral only due to isotopic substitution