title: Optically active sum frequency generation from molecules with a chiral center: amino acids as model systems.
abstract: With amino acids as model systems, optically active sum frequency generation (OA-SFG) was used to probe the chirality of molecules with a chiral center and an intrinsically achiral chromophore in isotropic solution for the first time. Like that of circular dichroism (CD), the OA-SFG's near electronic resonance originates from the extrachromophoric chiral perturbation on the carboxyl chromophore. The difference in the relative strengths of OA-SFG and CD among different amino acids can be explained by the difference in the details of perturbations.
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics, University of California, and Materials Sciences Division, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, California 94720, USA.
authors.forename: Na
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Ji
authors.forename: Yuen-Ron
authors.initials: YR
authors.lastname: Shen
mesh_terms: D000596:Amino Acids / Q000737:chemistry*; D002942:Circular Dichroism; D008956:Models, Chemical; D055095:Optics and Photonics; D013237:Stereoisomerism
chemical_list: D000596:Amino Acids