Cotton effect

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The Cotton effect is the characteristic change in optical rotatory dispersion and/or circular dichroism in the vicinity of an absorption band of a substance. In a wavelength region where the light is absorbed, the absolute magnitude of the rotation at first varies rapidly with wavelength, crosses zero at absorption maxima and then again varies rapidly with wavelength but in opposite direction. This phenomenon is known as the Cotton effect.

There are two types of Cotton Effect namely Positive Cotton Effect and Negative Cotton Effect. Protein structure like beta sheet shows positive Cotton Effect.