We have monitored spontaneous chiral segregation in Langmuir films of
a racemic mixture of D and L myristoyl-alanine. Following monolayer de
position, we observe first a strong chiral discrimination, followed at
longer times by a spatial segregation between D and L domains. Eviden
ce for discrimination has been obtained by surface pressure/area per m
olecule measurements, whereas segregation is inferred from optical obs
ervations using epifluorescence microscopy and from an analysis of the
lattice symmetry using x-ray diffraction.