Enhanced signals from chiral molecules via molecular coherence

One of the most widely used chiroptical spectroscopic methods for studying chiral molecules is Raman optical activity; however, the chiral Raman optical activity signal is extremely weak. Here, we theoretically examine enhanced chiral signals in a system with strongly prepared molecular coherence. We show that the enhanced chiral signal due to strong molecular coherence is up to four orders of magnitude higher than that of the spontaneous Raman optical activity. We discuss several advantages of studying the heterodyned signal obtained by combining the anti-Stokes signal with a local oscillator. The heterodyning allows direct measurement of the ratio of the chiral anti achiral parameters. Taking advantage of the molecular coherence anti heterodyne detection, the coherent anti-Stokes Raman scattering technique opens up a new potential application for investigation of biomolecular chirality. (C) 2019 Optical Society of America under the terms of the OSA Open Access Publishing Agreement