Observation of paramagnetic Raman optical activity of nitrogen dioxide

Raman optical activity (ROA) detects the intensity difference between right and left circularly polarized scattered light, and thus brings about enhanced information about the molecules under investigation. The difference is quite small and the technique is mostly constrained to the condensed phase. For NO2 in the presence of a static magnetic field, however, the ROA signal with high ROA/Raman intensity ratio was observed. The signal is so strong owing to molecular paramagnetism and a pre-resonance signal enhancement. The spectral shape was explained on the basis of the Fermi golden rule and rotational wave functions expanded to a spherical top basis. The results indicate that the technique can be immediately used to obtain information about molecular properties, such as polarizability components. It also has a potential to detect other paramagnetic gases and discriminate among them.