Broadening and shifting of the methanol 119-/μm gain line of linear and circular polarization by collision with chiral molecules -: art. no. 012507

Evidence of circular dichroism has been observed in the spectral properties of a gas of left-right symmetric molecules. This dichroism comes about as the result of collisions of the symmetric molecules with left-right asymmetric molecules introduced as a buffer gas. In this sense. the dichroism can be said to have been transferred from the chiral buffer molecules to the symmetric, nonchiral molecules of the background vapor. This transferred dichroism appears as a broadening in the gain line of the symmetric molecule that is asymmetric with respect to the right or left handedness of a circularly polarized probe. The broadening of the 119-mum line of the methanol molecule was observed using infrared-far-infrared double-resonance spectroscopy.