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  • 标题:Detection of circular polarization in light scattered from photosynthetic microbes
  • 本地全文:下载
  • 作者:William B. Sparks ; James Hough ; Thomas A. Germer
  • 期刊名称:Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
  • 印刷版ISSN:0027-8424
  • 电子版ISSN:1091-6490
  • 出版年度:2009
  • 卷号:106
  • 期号:19
  • 页码:7816-7821
  • DOI:10.1073/pnas.0810215106
  • 语种:English
  • 出版社:The National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
  • 摘要:The identification of a universal biosignature that could be sensed remotely is critical to the prospects for success in the search for life elsewhere in the universe. A candidate universal biosignature is homochirality, which is likely to be a generic property of all biochemical life. Because of the optical activity of chiral molecules, it has been hypothesized that this unique characteristic may provide a suitable remote sensing probe using circular polarization spectroscopy. Here, we report the detection of circular polarization in light scattered by photosynthetic microbes. We show that the circular polarization appears to arise from circular dichroism of the strong electronic transitions of photosynthetic absorption bands. We conclude that circular polarization spectroscopy could provide a powerful remote sensing technique for generic life searches.
  • 关键词:homochirality ; life detection ; remote sensing
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