title: Atomistic modeling of IR action spectra under circularly polarized electromagnetic fields: toward action VCD spectra.
abstract: The nonlinear response and dissociation propensity of an isolated chiral molecule, camphor, to a circularly polarized infrared laser pulse was simulated by molecular dynamics as a function of the excitation wavelength. The results indicate similarities with linear absorption spectra, but also differences that are ascribable to dynamical anharmonic effects. Comparing the responses between left- and right-circularly polarized pulses in terms of dissociation probabilities, or equivalently between R- and S-camphor to a similarly polarized pulse, we find significant differences for the fingerprint C = O amide mode, with a sensitivity that could be sufficient to possibly enable vibrational circular dichroism as an action technique for probing molecular chirality and absolute conformations in the gas phase.
authors.affiliation: Laboratoire Interdisciplinaire de Physique, Université Joseph Fourier, Grenoble, France.
authors.forename: Florent
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Calvo
keywords: camphor; computational modeling; gas-phase spectroscopy; molecular dynamics; statistical rate theory; vibrational circular dichroism