Theory of the angular distribution of molecular fragments produced on photodissociation of optically active molecules

Abstract

It is shown that the angular distribution of molecular photofragments produced on absorption of polarized light by a mixture of randomly oriented dextrorotatory and levorotatory optical isomers contains an anomalous term due to the presence of unequal numbers of each isomer. The effect is closely related to the forward-backward dissymmetry discovered recently in the angular distribution of photoelectrons ejected from a sample of optically active molecules or molecular negative ions. All terms in the angular distribution are of order $\alpha$, and previous analysis of the photoelectron angular distribution has shown that the anomalous term can be comparable in magnitude to the ordinary terms.