Molecular spinning by a chiral train of short laser pulses

Abstract

We provide a detailed theoretical analysis of molecular rotational excitation by a chiral pulse train -- a sequence of linearly polarised pulses with the polarisation direction rotating from pulse to pulse by a controllable angle. Molecular rotation with a preferential rotational sense (clockwise or counter-clockwise) can be excited by this scheme. We show that the directionality of the rotation is caused by quantum interference of different excitation pathways. The chiral pulse train is capable of selective excitation of molecular isotopologues and nuclear spin isomers in a mixture. We demonstrate this using 14N2 and 15N2 as examples for isotopologues, and para- and ortho-nitrogen as examples for nuclear spin isomers.

References in corpus (4)

• Control of molecular rotation with a chiral train of ultrashort pulses
• Quantum resonances in selective rotational excitation of molecules with a sequence of ultrashort laser pulses
• Quantum resonance, Anderson localisation and selective manipulations in molecular mixtures by ultrashort laser pulses
• Directional spinning of molecules with sequences of femtosecond pulses

Cited by in corpus (14)

• Quantum control of molecular rotation
• Manipulation of Molecules with Electromagnetic Fields
• Observing Molecular Spinning via the Rotational Doppler Effect
• Visualizing molecular unidirectional rotation
• Orienting Asymmetric Molecules by Laser Fields with Skewed Polarization
• Observation of persistent orientation of chiral molecules by laser field with twisted polarization
• Optics of a Gas of Coherently Spinning Molecules
• Anderson wall and Bloch oscillations in molecular rotation
• Directional spinning of molecules with sequences of femtosecond pulses
• Laser induced persistent orientation of chiral molecules
• Enantioselective Orientation of Chiral Molecules Induced by Terahertz Pulses with Twisted Polarization
• Edge states of periodically kicked quantum rotors
• Enantioselective chiral orientation induced by a combination of a long and a short laser pulse
• Optimal Selective Orientation of Chiral Molecules Using Femtosecond Laser Pulses