title: Diffraction gratings for chiral molecules and their applications.
abstract: We suggest the use of certain readily producible types of light to exert a force that points in opposite directions for the enantiomers of a chiral molecule and propose multiple devices based upon this novel manifestation of optical activity: in particular, our discriminatory chiral diffraction grating; a device that could be employed, for example, to measure the enantiomeric excess of a sample of chiral molecules simply and to high precision. Our work is relevant for many types of molecules and our proposed devices may be realizable using currently existing technology.
authors.affiliation: School of Physics and Astronomy, University of Glasgow , Glasgow G12 8QQ, United Kingdom.
authors.forename: Robert P
authors.initials: RP
authors.lastname: Cameron
authors.forename: Alison M
authors.initials: AM
authors.lastname: Yao
authors.forename: Stephen M
authors.initials: SM
authors.lastname: Barnett