Dresden 2026 – scientific programme

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O: Fachverband Oberflächenphysik

O 46: Organic molecules on inorganic substrates: electronic, optical and other properties – Poster

O 46.3: Poster

Tuesday, March 10, 2026, 14:00–16:00, P2

Second Harmonic Generation in Thin Films of Chiral Organic Molecules — •Martin Richter¹, Gayani Liyanage¹, Marjan Krstic², Erik Misselwitz³, Milan Kivala³, Carsten Rockstuhl², and Petra Tegeder¹ — ¹Institute for Physical Chemistry, Heidelberg University, Germany — ²Institute of Theoretical Solid-State Physics, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Germany — ³Institute of Organic Chemistry, Heidelberg University, Germany

Nonlinear optical (NLO) techniques enable increased sensitivity to chiroptical features. In contrast to linear circular dichroism (CD), second harmonic generation (SHG) chiroptical features can be explained within the dipole approximation. This includes electric as well as magnetic dipolar contributions. The latter are usually much weaker and specific measurement schemes are required to detect them. Here, we investigated thin films of chiral organic molecules using SHG-CD and SHG-ORD (optical rotatory dispersion) to probe the nonlinear CD and optical rotation. Continuous rotation of a quarter-wave plate generates circular and elliptical light to gain insights into the relative amplitudes of the second-order susceptibilities from electric χ^eee and magnetic (χ^mee and χ^eem) dipolar contributions. Our theoretical modelling allowed us to disentangle electric and magnetic dipole contributions.

Keywords: chiral; SHG; second harmonic generation; organic; circular dichroism