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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...

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.

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,...

Types Of Superconductors

Types Of Superconductors

A superconductor is a substance that offers zero resistance to the electric current when it drops below a critical temperature. Zero resistance is not the only interesting phenomenon as materials reach their transition temperatures. A second effect is the exclusion of magnetic fields. This is known as the Meissner effect. A light, permanent magnet placed over a superconducting sample will levitate in a stable position above the superconductor. High-speed trains that levitate on strong...

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...

Chirality at Nitrogen, Phosphorus, and Sulfur

Chirality at Nitrogen, Phosphorus, and Sulfur

Chirality is most prevalent in carbon-based tetrahedral compounds, but this important facet of molecular symmetry extends to sp3-hybridized nitrogen, phosphorus and sulfur centers, including trivalent molecules with lone pairs. Here, the lone pair behaves as a functional group in addition to the other three substituents to form an analogous tetrahedral center that can be chiral.
A consequence of chirality is the need for enantiomeric resolution. While this is theoretically possible for all...

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Related Experiment Video

Updated: Sep 15, 2025

Measuring Magnetically-Tuned Ferroelectric Polarization in Liquid Crystals

Measuring Magnetically-Tuned Ferroelectric Polarization in Liquid Crystals

Published on: August 15, 2018

Circular-polarization-selective perfect reflection from chiral superconductors.

Junyeong Ahn^1,2, Ashvin Vishwanath³

¹Department of Physics, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, 02138, USA. junyeong.ahn@austin.utexas.edu.

Nature Communications

|July 14, 2025

Summary

This summary is machine-generated.

Chiral superconductors enable new circular-polarization-selective mirrors for tunable chiral optical cavities. These mirrors achieve perfect reflection by breaking time-reversal symmetry, enhancing light-matter interactions.

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Fabrication and Characterization of Superconducting Resonators

Fabrication and Characterization of Superconducting Resonators

Published on: May 21, 2016

Area of Science:

Condensed Matter Physics
Quantum Optics
Materials Science

Background:

Chiral optical cavities are essential for studying time-reversal-asymmetric light-matter interactions.
Current designs often require integrating magnetic components with mirrors.
Chiral superconductors offer a potential route to intrinsic time-reversal symmetry breaking.

Purpose of the Study:

To introduce novel single-crystal circular-polarization-selective mirrors based on chiral superconductors.
To demonstrate the feasibility of achieving circular-polarization-selective perfect reflection (CSPR) in chiral superconductors.
To explore methods for enhancing optical Hall conductivity in these materials.

Main Methods:

Theoretical investigation of optical properties of chiral superconductors.
Analysis of conditions for significant optical Hall conductivity.
Modeling of CSPR in specific chiral superconductor systems.

Main Results:

Chiral superconductors can function as intrinsic circular-polarization-selective mirrors.
Significant optical Hall conductivity, leading to CSPR, is achievable under specific conditions (BCS-BEC crossover or beyond, significant optical Hall conductivity).
Demonstrated CSPR in doped quantum Hall insulators and chiral superconductors with preserved Bogoliubov Fermi surfaces.

Conclusions:

Chiral superconductors are promising for creating high-quality-factor terahertz chiral cavities.
The proposed mirrors eliminate the need for external magnetic components.
The findings have implications for understanding and engineering light-matter interactions in novel superconducting systems.