Photonic spin Hall effect–enabled optical differentiation for real-time monitoring of chiral molecular dynamics

We present a real-time monitoring platform for chiral molecular dynamics, integrating spatial optical differentiation with the photonic spin Hall effect (SHE). The system achieves an angular resolution of 5.0 × 10 −5 degrees at an optimal 10 ∘ incidence. Applied to sucrase-catalyzed sucrose hydrolysis, it reveals concentration-dependent amplified beam displacement variations correlated with enzymatic activity. The reaction rate constants, ranging from 0.16 × 10 −4 to 3.13 × 10 −4 min −1 , show a positive correlation with sucrase concentration, validating the method’s sensitivity to chiral transformations. By converting optical rotation angle changes into amplified beam displacement, this approach eliminates the need for realignment during experiments, thereby providing a novel, to the best of our knowledge, realignment-free optical detection mode for chiral analysis. The method demonstrates high sensitivity and holds strong potential for applications in pharmaceutical research and optical metrology.