Optical Response of a Chiral Molecule and Circular Dichroism in Second-Harmonic Generation

Surface second-harmonic generation has been found experimentally and theoretically to be capable of detecting chirality of a surface and of discriminating between the two enantiomers of a chiral molecule. ’ We calculate the second-order nonlinear optical response of a chiral molecule using a simple classical model and calculate the circular dichroism in second-harmonic generation from a thin film of chiral molecules.