Toward Detection of the Molecular Parity Violation in Chiral Ru(acac) and Os(acac).

We present a theory-experiment investigation of the helically chiral compounds Ru(acac) and Os(acac) as candidates for next-generation experiments for detection of molecular parity violation (PV) in vibrational spectra. We used relativistic density functional theory calculations to identify optimal vibrational modes with expected PV effects exceeding by up to 2 orders of magnitude the projected instrumental sensitivity of the ultrahigh resolution experiment under construction at the Laboratoire de Physique des Lasers in Paris. Preliminary measurements of the vibrational spectrum of Ru(acac) carried out as the first steps toward the planned experiment are presented.