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Chirality

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...

Properties of Enantiomers and Optical Activity

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,...

Chirality in Nature

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...

Molecules with Multiple Chiral Centers

Molecules with Multiple Chiral Centers

Molecules that possess multiple chiral centers can afford a large number of stereoisomers. For instance, while some molecules like 2-butanol have one chiral center, defined as a tetrahedral carbon atom with four different substituents attached, several molecules like butane-2,3-diol have multiple chiral centers. A simple formula to predict the number of stereoisomers possible for a molecule with n chiral centers is 2n. However, there can be a lower number where some of the stereoisomers are...

Stereoisomerism

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...

Prochirality

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...

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Related Experiment Video

Updated: Jun 5, 2026

Transmission of Multiple Signals through an Optical Fiber Using Wavefront Shaping

Transmission of Multiple Signals through an Optical Fiber Using Wavefront Shaping

Published on: March 20, 2017

Pure chiral optical fibres.

L Poladian¹, M Straton, A Docherty

¹Institute of Photonics and Optical Science (IPOS), School of Mathematics and Statistics, The University of Sydney, NSW, Australia. leon.poladian@sydney.edu.au

|January 26, 2011

Summary

This summary is machine-generated.

Pure chiral optical fibres utilize optical activity for light guidance, unlike traditional refractive index-based fibres. These novel fibres show distinct behaviours for left- and right-hand circular polarisations, enabling unique optical isolation and guidance properties.

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Fabrication And Characterization Of Photonic Crystal Slow Light Waveguides And Cavities

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Area of Science:

Optics and Photonics
Materials Science

Background:

Traditional optical fibres rely on refractive index contrast for light guidance.
Chiral materials exhibit optical activity, a property not typically exploited for waveguiding.

Purpose of the Study:

To investigate the properties of optical fibres made from chiral materials, termed pure chiral fibres.
To mathematically formulate and analyze the modal properties of pure chiral fibres.
To compare the performance of chiral fibres with non-chiral counterparts.

Main Methods:

Developed a mathematical formulation for solving modes in circularly symmetric pure chiral fibres.
Examined step-index, Bragg, and photonic crystal fibre designs.
Analyzed guidance and polarization properties for left- and right-hand circular polarizations.

Main Results:

Pure chiral fibres exhibit different guidance and polarization behaviors for left- and right-hand circular polarizations.
These fibres allow for isolation and/or guidance of specific circular polarizations through distinct mechanisms.
Performance differences were observed compared to equivalent non-chiral fibres.
Quantified the necessary optical activity strength for different fibre designs.

Conclusions:

Pure chiral fibres offer novel waveguiding mechanisms based on optical activity.
The distinct polarization-dependent behavior opens possibilities for advanced optical devices.
Further research can explore applications leveraging these unique chiral fiber properties.