Abstract
We measured the total and partial ion yields of the two chiral amino acids alanine and serine in the gas phase both in the vacuum ultraviolet region and at the edge using circularly polarized light. We did not detect any circular dichroism asymmetry larger than . A similar measurement of fixed-in-space amino acids yielded an upper limit of for the stereoselective effect of circularly polarized light. The results obtained are relevant for quantitative models of stereoselective photodecomposition of amino acids that try to explain the homochirality of life.
2 More- Received 27 January 2004
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevA.69.062717
©2004 American Physical Society