  Circular dichroism (CD), i.e. the differential response of a system to left
and right circularly polarized light, is one of the only techniques capable of
providing morphological information of certain samples. In biology, for
instance, CD spectroscopy is widely used to study the structure of proteins.
More recently, it has also been used to characterize metamaterials and
plasmonic structures. Typically, CD can only be observed in chiral objects.
Here, we present experimental results showing that a non-chiral sample such as
a sub-wavelength circular nano-aperture can produce giant CD when a vortex beam
is used to excite it. These measurements can be understood by studying the
symmetries of the sample and the total angular momentum that vortex beams
carry. Our results show that CD can provide a wealth of information about the
sample when combined with the control of the total angular momentum of the
input field.
