Eur. Phys. J. Special Topics 208, 67-74 (2012)
https://doi.org/10.1140/epjst/e2012-01607-2

Regular Article

Determination of absolute chirality using resonant X-ray diffraction

¹ RIKEN SPring-8 Centre, Sayo, Hyogo 679-5148, Japan
² ISIS Facility and Diamond Light Source Ltd., Didcot, Oxfordshire OX11 0QX, UK

^a e-mail: ytanaka@riken.jp

Received: 8 December 2011
Revised: 23 March 2012
Published online: 15 June 2012

Abstract

We have demonstrated that resonant diffraction experiments using the circularly polarized X-ray beam absolutely determines the crystal chirality. Both berlinite and quartz crystals belonging to space group P3₂21 show higher azimuth-constant intensity for the negative (−) helicity beam than that for the the positive (+) helicity beam for space-group forbidden reflection 001. The relation is opposite for quartz crystal belonging to space group P3₁21. Theoretical calculation shows that this relation completely agrees with the experimental findings for the enantiomorphic space-group pair P3₁21 and P3₂21. This method is applicable to chiral motifs that occur in biomolecules, liquid crystals, ferroelectrics, and multiferroics, etc.