optical rotation
Sign in to saveAlso known as optical activity, polarization rotation, circular birefringence
rotation of the plane of linearly polarized light as it travels through a chiral material
Research
10,866 papers- Optical Rotation-A Reliable Parameter for Authentication of Honey?Molecules (Basel, Switzerland) · 2022
- Optoacousto-Fluidics Based Optical Rotation Measure for Blood Glucose Sensing.IEEE transactions on bio-medical engineering · 2025
- Multiwavelength Optical Rotation Detection: An Effective Approach for the Recognition of Analytical and Semi-Preparative HPLC Enantioseparation of the Chiral Pheromone Olean and Its Stereochemical Characterization.Chirality · 2024
- Influence of Electrostatic Field on Optical Rotation of D-Glucose Solution: Experimental Research for Electric Field-Induced Biological Effect.Molecules (Basel, Switzerland) · 2024
- Protein conformation in biomembranes: optical rotation and absorption of membrane suspensions.Biochimica et biophysica acta · 1972
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Described at
Valev - Optical rotation
people.bath.ac.uk →Let us first examine the case where left and right circularly polarized light are affected differently by the refractive index but not by the extinction coefficient. The real part of the complex refractive index (i.e. the refractive index) is defined as n = c / vP where c is the speed of light in empty space. If while traveling within a material, left and right circularly polarized light propagate with a different phase velocity, then after emerging from the medium, the arrows and would complete different parts of the circle. However, since there is no difference in absorption, both arrows would exhibit equal amplitudes. The resulting polarization is schematized in figure 2, where, as you can see, at time t = 0, has not completed its circular motion and the resulting linear polarization vector (blue arrow) appears to be rotated from its original position by an angle . This is called optical rotation or circular birefringence . . Recognizing the opportunity to apply the formula for sin and cos sum and difference:
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Article
Operating principle of a polarimeter for measuring optical rotation. Light source Unpolarized light Linear polarizer Linearly polarized light Sample tube containing molecules under study Optical rotation (dextrorotatory, ~30°) due to chiral molecules Rotatable linear analyzer Detector
Optical rotation, also known as polarization rotation or circular birefringence, is the rotation of the orientation of the plane of polarization about the optical axis of linearly polarized light as it travels through certain materials. Circular birefringence and circular dichroism are the manifestations of optical activity. Optical activity occurs only in chiral materials, those lacking microscopic mirror symmetry. Unlike other sources of birefringence which alter a beam's state of polarization, optical activity can be observed in fluids. This can include gases or solutions of chiral molecules such as sugars, molecules with helical secondary structure such as some proteins, and also chiral liquid crystals. It can also be observed in chiral solids such as certain crystals with a rotation between adjacent crystal planes (such as quartz) or metamaterials.