Experimental evidence of the B2 and B3 dependent circular birefringence of chiral molecules in high magnetic fields

The rotation of the plane of polarization of light passing through chiral media in the Faraday geometry of a magnetic field B and light propagation vector k have been measured in high magnetic fields of induction up to 30 T and a laser beam wavelength lambda = 488 nm. The optically active enantiomers of neat alpha-methylbenzylamine and solutions in water of tartaric, malic and lactic acids, leucine and threonine exhibit dependence of the induced rotation of the light polarization plane on B-2 and B-3. The effect is reported of the magnetic field B-2 induced circular birefringence of laevorotatory and dextrorotatory enantiomers. Also differences are found in the effective rotation of the plane of polarization in the parallel (alpha(up arrow up arrow)) and antiparallel (alpha(up down arrow)) configurations of B and k acting on a chiral medium. The first quantitative determination is made of the nonlinear (B-3) Faraday effect in chiral media. The linear in B circular birefringence makes the largest contribution to the B-2 and B-3 dependent rotation.