Controlling the sense of molecular rotation

Abstract

We introduce a new scheme for controlling the sense of molecular rotation. By varying the polarization and the delay between two ultrashort laser pulses, we induce unidirectional molecular rotation, thereby forcing the molecules to rotate clockwise/counterclockwise under field-free conditions. We show that unidirectionally rotating molecules are confined to the plane defined by the two polarization vectors of the pulses, which leads to a permanent anisotropy in the molecular angular distribution. The latter may be useful for controlling collisional cross-sections and optical and kinetic processes in molecular gases. We discuss the application of this control scheme to individual components within a molecular mixture in a selective manner.

21 pages, 10 figures, Submitted to the New Journal of Physics for the "coherent control" special issue

References in corpus (1)

• Semiclassical catastrophes and accumulative angular squeezing of a kicked quantum rotor

Cited by in corpus (49)

• Quantum control of molecular rotation
• Manipulation of Molecules with Electromagnetic Fields
• Observing Molecular Spinning via the Rotational Doppler Effect
• Control of molecular rotation with a chiral train of ultrashort pulses
• Controlled enantioselective orientation of chiral molecules with an optical centrifuge
• Selective Orientation of Chiral Molecules by Laser Fields with Twisted Polarization
• Detecting chirality in molecules by linearly polarized laser fields
• Molecular rotation movie filmed with high-harmonic generation
• Deflection of field-free aligned molecules
• Experimental observation of Anderson localization in laser-kicked molecular rotors
• Visualizing molecular unidirectional rotation
• Controlling the sense of molecular rotation: classical vs quantum analysis
• Laser Induced Gas Vortices
• Orienting Asymmetric Molecules by Laser Fields with Skewed Polarization
• Field-induced diastereomers for chiral separation
• Observation of persistent orientation of chiral molecules by laser field with twisted polarization
• All-optical measurement of high-order fractional molecular echoes by high-order harmonic generation
• Optics of a Gas of Coherently Spinning Molecules
• Quantum resonance, Anderson localisation and selective manipulations in molecular mixtures by ultrashort laser pulses
• Anderson wall and Bloch oscillations in molecular rotation
• Controlling Molecular Scattering by Laser-Induced Field-Free Alignment
• RichMol: A general variational approach for rovibrational molecular dynamics in external electric fields
• Directional spinning of molecules with sequences of femtosecond pulses
• Molecular spinning by a chiral train of short laser pulses
• Laser induced persistent orientation of chiral molecules
• Enantioselective Orientation of Chiral Molecules Induced by Terahertz Pulses with Twisted Polarization
• Experimental demonstration of coherent control in quantum chaotic systems
• Observation of nondispersing classical-like molecular rotation
• Optical imaging of coherent molecular rotors
• Modifying molecule-surface scattering by ultrashort laser pulses
• Giant Polarization Drag in a Gas of Molecular Superrotors
• Capture into resonance and phase space dynamics in optical centrifuge
• Echoes in Unidirectionally Rotating Molecules
• Rotation of polarization of light propagating through a gas of molecular super-rotors
• Laser control of molecular rotation: Expanding the utility of an optical centrifuge
• Stern-Gerlach deflection of field-free aligned paramagnetic molecules
• Coherent Control of the Rotation Axis of Molecular Superrotors
• Edge states of periodically kicked quantum rotors
• Generating long sequences of high-intensity femtosecond pulses
• Simulating electric field interactions with polar molecules using spectroscopic databases
• Comparative study of monotonically convergent optimization algorithms for the control of molecular rotation
• Rotational excitation of molecules with long sequences of intense femtosecond pulses
• Enantioselective chiral orientation induced by a combination of a long and a short laser pulse
• Controlling the degree of rotational directionality in laser-induced molecular dynamics
• Molecular Frisbee: Motion of Spinning Molecules in Inhomogeneous Fields
• Laser-induced molecular alignment in the presence of chaotic rotational dynamics
• Optimal Selective Orientation of Chiral Molecules Using Femtosecond Laser Pulses
• Visualizing coherent molecular rotation in a gaseous medium
• Gradient-based reconstruction of molecular Hamiltonians and density matrices from time-dependent quantum observables