Experimental observation of Anderson localization in laser-kicked molecular rotors

Abstract

We observe and study the phenomenon of Anderson localization in a system of true quantum kicked rotors. Nitrogen molecules in a supersonic molecular jet are cooled down to 27~K and are rotationally excited by a periodic train of 24~high-intensity femtosecond pulses. Exponential distribution of the molecular angular momentum - the most unambiguous signature of Anderson localization - is measured directly by means of coherent Raman scattering. We demonstrate the suppressed growth of the molecular rotational energy with the number of laser kicks and study the dependence of the localization length on the kick strength. Both timing and amplitude noise in the pulse train is shown to destroy the localization and revive the diffusive growth of angular momentum.

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References in corpus (6)

• Observation of Bloch oscillations in molecular rotation
• Anderson wall and Bloch oscillations in molecular rotation
• Edge states of periodically kicked quantum rotors
• Generating long sequences of high-intensity femtosecond pulses
• Rotational excitation of molecules with long sequences of intense femtosecond pulses
• Unified parameter for localization in isotope-selective rotational excitation of diatomic molecules using a train of optical pulses

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