Method with polarized light can create and measure nonsymmetrical states in a layered material
(PHYSorg.com Physics)

Some molecules, including most of the ones in living organisms, have shapes that can exist in two different mirror-image versions. The right- and left-handed versions can sometimes have different properties, such that only one of them carries out the molecule`s functions. Now, a team of physicists has found that a similarly asymmetrical pattern can be induced and measured at will in certain exotic materials, using a special kind of light beam to stimulate the material.