Chirality detection of enantiomers enabled by optical frequency-domain differentiation

Abstract With the widespread use of chiral molecules in biology and medicine, the need for detecting opposite chirality has become increasingly strong. Although enantiomers generally show similar physical properties, different chirality of the same molecule can lead to very different final results, which has a critical impact on the medical field. Here, we propose a scheme for precise and real-time chirality detection of enantiomers. With the operation of all-optical differentiation in frequency domain, optical rotations caused by chiral molecules of different chirality can be detected directly. In particular, the measured wavelength shifts in opposite signs can be used to identify different chiral responses. We believe that the proposed scheme will motivate potential applications of optical analog computing in chiral sensing fields.