chirality assessed by ROA The symmetry of the neopentane molecule can be broken if some hydrogen atoms are replaced by deuterium atoms. In particular, if each methyl group has a different number of substituted atoms (0, 1, 2, and 3), one obtains a chiral molecule. The chirality in this case arises solely by the mass distribution of its nuclei, while the electron distribution is still essentially achiral. This chirality is the thinnest one synthesized so far and was assessed by ROA in 2007. See also Linear dichroism Magnetic circular dichroism Optical activity Optical isomerism Optical rotation Optical rotatory dispersion Hyper Rayleigh Scattering Optical Activity Two-photon circular dichroism Vibrational circular dichroism References Bibliography Laurence D. Barron, Fujiang Zhu, Lutz Hecht, George E. Tranter, Neil W. Isaacs, Raman optical activity: An incisive probe of molecular chirality and biomolecular structure, Journal of Molecular Structure, 834–836 (2007) 7–16. External links Two Kings of Chirality by Dermot Martin. Laboratory News.http://www.labnews.co.uk/article/2028647/two_kings_of_chirality Raman spectroscopy