Fast-type high-accuracy universal polarimeter using charge-coupled device spectrometer

A fast, high-accuracy universal polarimeter was developed using a charge-coupled device (CCD) spectrometer (CCD-HAUP), to carry out simultaneous optical anisotropic (linear birefringence, LB; linear dichroism, LD) and chiroptical (circular birefringence, CB; circular dichroism, CD) measurements on single crystals without any pretreatment, in the visible region between 400-680 nm. The principle of the HAUP method is to measure the intensities of emergent light passing through a polarizer, a crystal sample, and then an analyzer, as the azimuth angles of the polarizer and analyzer are independently altered. The CCD-HAUP has the unique feature that white transmitted light intensity can be measured using a CCD spectrometer, compared with the generalized HAUP (G-HAUP) system in which monochromatic transmitted light is measured using a photomultiplier. The CCD-HAUP measurements across the entire wavelength region are completed within the G-HAUP measurement time for a single wavelength. The CCD-HAUP drastically reduces the measurement time for a dataset to only 1.5 h, from the 24 h required for the G-HAUP system. LB, LD, CB, and CD measurements of single crystals of α-quartz and enantiomeric photomechanical salicylidenephenylethylamines before, during, and after ultraviolet light irradiation show results comparable to those obtained using the G-HAUP system. The newly developed system is very effective for samples susceptible to degradation induced by external stimuli, such as light and heat.