Determination of structural chirality of berlinite and quartz using resonant x-ray diffraction with circularly polarized x-rays

作者：Tanaka Yoshikazu^*; Kojima Taro; Takata Yasutaka; Chainani Ashish; Lovesey Stephen W; Knight Kevin S; Takeuchi Tomoyuki; Oura Masaki; Senba Yasunori; Ohashi Haruhiko; Shin Shik

来源：Physical Review B, 2010, 81(14): 144104.

DOI：10.1103/PhysRevB.81.144104

Many proteins, sugars, and pharmaceuticals crystallize into two forms that are mirror images of each other (enantiomers) such as our right and left hands (chiral). Berlinite (AlPO(4)) and low quartz (SiO(2)) have enantiomers belonging to a space-group pair, P3(1)21 (right-handed screw) and P3(2)21 (left-handed screw). We use circularly polarized resonant x-ray diffraction to study structural chirality. Our results demonstrate that positive and negative circularly polarized x-rays at the resonant energy of berlinite (Al 1s edge) and low quartz (Si 1s edge) can distinguish the absolute structure (right or left-handed screw) of an enantiomer. The advantage of our method is that the measurement of only one space-group forbidden reflection is enough to determine the chirality. This method is applicable to chiral motifs that occur in biomolecules, liquid crystals, ferroelectrics and antiferroelectrics, multiferroics, etc.

• 出版日期2010-4-1