Chiral Asymmetry in the Photoeffect with Vortex Photoelectrons

Over the past 30 years, the effect of "photoelectron circular dichroism" has been extensively studied. This chiral asymmetry in the angular distribution of photoelectrons arises from the ionization of an ensemble of randomly oriented chiral molecules by circularly polarized light. Crucially, the electron distribution can be used to determine which of the two mirror-image copies (enantiomers) of a chiral molecule was ionized. In our works, we extend this process by considering the photoeffect in which the final state of the electron is a vortex state. Such an electron possesses nonzero orbital angular momentum and, consequently, additional intrinsic chirality. We demonstrate that this leads to new types of chiral asymmetries. In particular, it opens up new possibilities for determining molecular chirality.