Abstract

Photoreactions initiated with circularly polarized light (CPL), which exists in left-handed and righthanded forms and is easy to prepare, has had limited success in asymmetric synthesis although they may model the pre-biotic origin of optically active molecules on the earth. Other approaches including multiphoton excitation with CPL may prove more successful in asymmetric synthesis.

Keywords: circularly polarized light, asymmetric synthesis, multiphoton excitation