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Revisiting giant photoelectron asymmetries in fenchone enantiomers

Laura Sommerlad1,*, Nikolay M. Novikovskiy2, Florian Trinter3, Dominik Stemer3, Owen Dennis McGinnis1, Andreas Pier1, Niklas Melzer1, Jan Kruse1, Max Kircher1 et al.

Leon Kaiser1, Theresa Wenzel1, Till Jahnke4, Reinhard Dörner1, Philipp V. Demekhin2, and Markus S. Schöffler1,†

  • *Contact author: Sommerlad@atom.uni-frankfurt.de
  • †Contact author: Schoeffler@atom.uni-frankfurt.de
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Phys. Rev. Research 8, 023214 – Published 27 May, 2026

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/jw4j-gfd8

Abstract

We report a joint experimental and theoretical study of core ionization of fenchone enantiomers at photon energies in the range 294.9–306.9 eV. Our experimental method enables the measurement of photoelectron momentum distributions with full 4π solid-angle coverage in the laboratory frame, yielding photon-energy-resolved dichroic and anisotropy parameters for photoelectrons emitted from C 1s (C=O and C–Hn) orbitals. Our experimental results are supported by ab initio electronic-structure calculations and agree fairly well with values available in the literature. Our findings demonstrate that core-level photoelectron circular dichroism is highly sensitive to both the localization of the emitting orbital and the treatment of background contributions, providing a solid basis for future studies of complex chiral molecules.

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Phys. Rev. Research 8, 023214– Published 27 May, 2026
  • Received 19 February 2026
  • Accepted 6 May 2026
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Published by the American Physical Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. Further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the published article's title, journal citation, and DOI. Open access publication funded by Max Planck Society.

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