Visualizing molecular unidirectional rotation

Abstract

A molecule can be optically accelerated to rotate unidirectionally at a frequency of a few terahertzes which is many orders higher than the classical mechanical rotor. Such a photon-induced ultrafast molecular unidirectional rotation has been well explored as a controllable spin of the molecular nuclear wave packet. Although it has been observed for more than 10 years, a complete imaging of the unidirectional rotating nuclear wave packet is still missing, which is essentially the cornerstone of all the exploring applications. Here, for the first time, we experimentally visualize the time-dependent evolution of the double-pulse excited molecular unidirectional rotation by Coulomb explosion imaging the rotational nuclear wave packet. Our results reveal comprehensive details undiscovered in pioneering measurements, which exhibits as a joint of the quantum revival of the impulsively aligned rotational wave packet and its unidirectional rotation following the angular momentum conservation. The numerical simulations well reproduce the experimental observations and intuitively revivify the thoroughgoing evolution of the rotational wave packet.

15 pages, 5 figures

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Cited by in corpus (13)

• Quantum control of molecular rotation
• Controlled enantioselective orientation of chiral molecules with an optical centrifuge
• Selective Orientation of Chiral Molecules by Laser Fields with Twisted Polarization
• Molecular rotation movie filmed with high-harmonic generation
• Orienting Asymmetric Molecules by Laser Fields with Skewed Polarization
• Laser induced persistent orientation of chiral molecules
• Optical imaging of coherent molecular rotors
• Rotation of polarization of light propagating through a gas of molecular super-rotors
• Enantioselective chiral orientation induced by a combination of a long and a short laser pulse
• Topological charges of periodically kicked molecules
• Dynamical stability of the one-dimensional rigid Brownian rotator: The role of the rotator's spatial size and shape
• Visualizing coherent molecular rotation in a gaseous medium
• Gradient-based reconstruction of molecular Hamiltonians and density matrices from time-dependent quantum observables