This could fundamentally change the technology landscape by enabling a new generation of devices
A recent paper in Nature Communications by an international team of collaborative researchers marks the 10,000th published as a result of innovative research at Diamond Light Source, the UK’s national synchrotron. This study presents disruptive insights into chiral polymer films, which emit and absorb circularly polarised light, and offers the promise of achieving important technological advances, including high-performance displays, 3D imaging and quantum computing.https://player.vimeo.com/video/502596383
Chirality is a fundamental symmetry property of the universe. We see left-handed (LH) and right-handed (RH) mirror image pairs in everything from snails and small molecules to giant spiral galaxies. Light can also have chirality. As light is travelling, its internal electric field can rotate left or right creating LH or RH circular polarisation. The ability to control and manipulate this chiral, circularly-polarised light presents opportunities in next-generation optoelectronics (Figs 1a and 1b). However, the origin of the large chiroptical effects in polymer thin films (Figs 1c and 2) has remained elusive for almost three decades. In this study, a group of researchers from Imperial College London, the University of Nottingham, the University of Barcelona, the Diamond Light Source and the J.A. Woollam Company made use of Diamond’s Synchrotron Radiation Circular Dichroism beamline (B23) and the Advanced Light Source in California.
Read more on the Diamond website
Image: In situ chiroptical response of ACPCA and cholesteric chiral sidechain polymers (CSCP) thin films. In situ CD spectra recorded during heating and cooling of ACPCA (F8BT: aza[6]H) and CSCP (cPFBT) thin films (note blue represents low temperatures and red represents high temperatures), (c) and (d) the CD intensity recorded at 480nm as a function of temperature during heating (red) and cooling (blue), and (e) and (f) CD intensity of thin films held at 140°C as a function of time for [P] (turquoise) and [M] (purple) systems (note the different time on-axis).