Natural Circular Dichroism at the Nd L3 Edge in Single Crystals of Na3Nd(C4H4O5)3 2NaBF4 6H2O

We report the first attempt to detect natural circular dichroism (CD) in single crystals in the X-ray region using the unique circularly polarised beamline BL-6A at ESRF. Measurements have been made at the Nd L3 edge on single crystals of Na3Nd(C4H4O5)3 2NaBF4 6H2O, which crystallises in the enantiomorphic spacegroup -R32, Preliminary data analysis shows that there is a residual CD which has opposite sign for enantiomeric crystals and a dissymetry factor of around 5 x 10-3 which is close to the value predicted for natural CD.