Advanced search for the origin of life's homochirality: asymmetric photon induced processes on chiral compounds with far UV circularly polarized synchrotron radiation
Résumé
Assuming an extra-terrestrial formation of life's molecular building blocks such as amino-acids, a possible abiotic explanation for the selection of the L enantiomers could be the exposure to an asymmetric bias such as far UV Circularly Polarized Light (CPL), during their journey towards Earth, inducing some enantiomeric excess (e.e) that could then be amplified on Earth via suitable autocatalytic mechanisms. Synchrotron Radiation (SR), with its intense flux and broad tunability, is a unique tool which mimics such an interstellar far UV CPL. We have recently employed it to study : (1) The irradiation of solid films of the amino acid D,L-leucine, i.e. under relevant astrophysical conditions. Starting from racemic D,L-leucine irradiated with CPL SR beam at 6.8 eV (182 nm), we have been able to induce by enantioselective photolysis an e.e. of 2.6 %, as measured by chiral-sensitive CG-MS analysis, in accordance with the CD spectrum recorded on the same type of sample. (2) CPL-induced gas phase photoionization of chiral molecules. By measuring the angular distribution of photoelectrons ejected from pure enantiomers, we observed a strong anisotropy (up to 16 %) in the forward/backward direction with respect to the light propagation axis. Because of momentum conservation, such an effect is accompanied by an asymmetric recoil of the corresponding ions that could lead to a high e.e. Future prospects on the new VUV SR beamline DESIRS at SOLEIL are presented.