Vibrational optical activity (VOA) is comprised of two closely related areas of molecular spectroscopy, infrared vibrational circular dichroism (VCD) and vibrational Raman optical activity (ROA). Both of these areas were discovered experimentally in the early 1970s and have since matured into a new field of science at the interface of vibrational spectroscopy and molecular chirality. Vibrational optical activity has come of age with the availability of commercial instruments and computational programs which now enable non-specialists to apply both infrared and Raman optical activity to a wide range of chemical and biomolecular problems.

This book will take the reader from the basic theory through the practical and instrumental approaches, providing a unified, comprehensive description to the field of VOA that gives both introductory and in-depth coverage to VCD and ROA. Applications include the analysis of all classes of chiral molecules, including organic and inorganic molecules, metal complexes, pharmaceutical and natural product molecules, and the full range of biological molecules such as amino acids, peptides, sugars, proteins, protein fibrils, carbohydrates, nucleic acids, viruses and bacteria.

This comprehensive volume will serve both as an introduction and complete reference for this relatively new, but increasingly important, area of molecular spectroscopy. Written in a thorough and progressive style, it will appeal to advanced undergraduates, graduates and research groups in academia as well as researchers and technicians in the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries.