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Related Concept Videos

Properties of Enantiomers and Optical Activity02:24

Properties of Enantiomers and Optical Activity

It is essential to understand the difference between chiral and achiral interactions and the implications thereof in optical activity and their applications. Just as our feet, which are chiral, interact uniquely with chiral objects, such as a pair of shoes, but identically with achiral socks, enantiomers of a molecule exhibit different properties only when they interact with other chiral media. An example of a significant implication from this facet is the phenomenon known as optical activity,...
Chirality02:25

Chirality

Chirality is a term that describes the lack of mirror symmetry in an object. In other words, chiral objects cannot be superposed on their mirror images. For example, our feet are chiral, as the mirror image of the left foot, the right foot, cannot be superposed on the left foot.
Chiral objects exhibit a sense of handedness when they interact with another chiral object. For example, our left foot can only fit in the left shoe and not in the right shoe. Achiral objects — objects that have...
Chirality in Nature02:30

Chirality in Nature

Chirality is the most intriguing yet essential facet of nature, governing life’s biochemical processes and precision. It can be observed from a snail shell pattern in a macroscopic world to an amino acid, the minutest building block of life. Most of the snails around the world have right-coiled shells because of the intrinsic chirality in their genes. All the amino acids present in the human body exist in an enantiomerically pure state, except for glycine - the sole achiral amino acid. The...
Stereoisomerism02:52

Stereoisomerism

Isomerism in Complexes
Isomers are different chemical species that have the same chemical formula.
Transition metal complexes often exist as geometric isomers, in which the same atoms are connected through the same types of bonds but with differences in their orientation in space. Coordination complexes with two different ligands in the cis and trans positions from a ligand of interest form isomers. For example, the octahedral [Co(NH3)4Cl2]+ ion has two isomers (Figure 1) In the cis...
Prochirality02:05

Prochirality

The concept of prochirality leads to the nomenclature of the individual faces of a molecule and plays a crucial role in the enantioselective reaction. It is a concept where two or more achiral molecules react to produce chiral products. A typical process is the reaction of an achiral ketone to generate a chiral alcohol. Here, the achiral reactant reacts with an achiral reducing agent, sodium borohydride, to generate an equimolar mixture of the chiral enantiomers of the product. For example, an...
Naming Enantiomers02:21

Naming Enantiomers

The naming of enantiomers employs the Cahn–Ingold–Prelog rules that involve assigning priorities to different substituent groups at a chiral center. Each enantiomer, being a distinct molecule, is assigned a unique name by the Cahn–Ingold–Prelog (CIP) rules, also called the R–S system. The prefix R- or S- attached to the chiral centers in an enantiomer is dependent on the spatial arrangement of the four substituents on the chiral center. The R–S system essentially comprises three steps:...

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Demonstration of Spin-Multiplexed and Direction-Multiplexed All-Dielectric Visible Metaholograms
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Metamaterials: optical activity without chirality.

E Plum1, X-X Liu, V A Fedotov

  • 1Optoelectronics Research Centre, University of Southampton, SO17 1BJ, United Kingdom.

Physical Review Letters
|April 28, 2009
PubMed
Summary
This summary is machine-generated.

Optical activity, typically linked to molecular chirality, is now observed in artificial planar media lacking 3D or 2D chirality. This finding expands our understanding of optical phenomena beyond traditional molecular structures.

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Last Updated: Jun 23, 2026

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Area of Science:

  • Physics
  • Materials Science
  • Optics

Background:

  • Optical activity is a classical phenomenon traditionally linked to the chirality (helicity) of molecules.
  • Chirality, the property of non-superimposability of a mirror image, is essential for observed optical activity in organic molecules, proteins, and inorganic structures.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate the possibility of observing optical activity in artificial planar media.
  • To determine if optical activity can exist in structures lacking traditional 3D or 2D chirality.

Main Methods:

  • Utilizing regular arrays of nonchiral subwavelength metamolecules in planar media.
  • Conducting experiments at oblique incidence in both microwave and optical spectral regions.

Main Results:

  • Observed strong circular dichroism and birefringence in artificial planar media.
  • Demonstrated that these optical effects are indistinguishable from those in chiral three-dimensional media.

Conclusions:

  • Artificial planar media, even without 3D or 2D chirality, can exhibit optical activity.
  • This research broadens the scope of optical activity beyond conventional chiral structures, opening new avenues in metamaterial research.