James Canary reports in the May 26 Science that he has found a new
molecular switch, it changes from a right to left handed form and more
important, it rotates the polarization of light passing through it. I think
that's pretty damn neat.
"Electrical inversion of molecular chirality and strong anisotropic interactions
with light may be useful in the design of materials for applications in molecular
electronics or optical displays . Additionally, the changes in molecular conformation
proposed for our system suggest new strategies for nanomechanical devices .
[...] The electrically induced chirality inversion coupled with strong interactions with
polarized light is unique and may lead to novel chiral molecular devices."
John K Clark jonkc@att.net
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