Laser centrifuge spins out chiral molecules in world first

Ilya Averbukh’s team from the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel teamed up with Valery Milner’s group from the University of British Columbia, Canada, to build a laser setup called an optical centrifuge that can spin chiral molecules depending on their handedness.^1 ‘This is the first time anyone has been able to control the spatial orientation of chiral molecules with light,’ says Averbukh.