Biomedical Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
Chapter 2
Reciprocity and Optical Chirality
Aur elien Drezet
a
and Cyriaque Genet
b
a
InstitutNeel, CNRS and UniversiteJosephFourier (UPR 2940),25 Rue des Martyrs,
38000Grenoble, France
b
ISIS, CNRS and Universitede Strasbourg (UMR 7006),8Allee Gaspard Monge,
67000Strasbourg, France
drezet@grenoble.cnrs.fr, genet@unistra.fr
2.1 Introduction
Chirality (or handedness as the word stems from the greek
χ
´
ιρ
meaning hand), refers to the lack or absence of mirror symmetry
ofmanysystems [1-3]. It isafascinatingproperty havingimportant
consequences in every areas of science. For example, it is connected
to several fundamental problems such as the apparition of life,
the origin of homochirality (that is of single handedness) of many
biomolecules [4], and also to the asymmetry between left and
right-handed fermions with respect to electroweak interaction [5].
Historically, I. Kant was one of the first eminent scholar to point out
the philosophical significance of mirror operation. Already in 1783
inhiscelebrated“Prolegomenatoanyfuturemetaphysics,”hewrote
