Strong Coupling to Circularly Polarized Photons: Toward\nCavity-Induced Enantioselectivity

The development of\nnew methodologies for the selective synthesis\nof individual enantiomers is still one of the major challenges in\nsynthetic chemistry. Many biomolecules, and also many pharmaceutical\ncompounds, are indeed chiral. While the use of chiral reactants or\ncatalysts has led to substantial progress in the field of asymmetric\nsynthesis, a systematic approach applicable to general reactions has\nstill not been proposed. In this work, we demonstrate that strong\ncoupling to circularly polarized fields can induce asymmetry in otherwise\nnonselective reactions. Specifically, we show that the field induces\nstereoselectivity in the early stages of chemical reactions by selecting\nan energetically preferred direction of approach for the reagents.\nAlthough the effects observed thus far are too small to significantly\ndrive asymmetric synthesis, our results provide a proof of principle\nfor field-induced stereoselective mechanisms. These findings lay the\ngroundwork for future research.