X-Ray Natural Circular Dichroism

We report the first observation of natural circular dichroism (CD) in the x-ray region. Measurements at the Nd L-3 edge in single crystals of Na3Nd(digly)(3) . 2NaBF(4) . 6H(2)O show CD with a dissymmetry factor g approximate to 10(-3) of the same order of magnitude as observed in the visible-uv region and similar to 100 times greater than in the vibrational infrared. Calculations using multiple scattering theory (MST) are in excellent agreement with the measured CD in the near-edge region (about 100 eV from the rising edge) and show that the effect arises from the electric dipole-electric quadrupole interference mechanism.