Long-lasting field-free alignment of large molecules inside helium nanodroplets

Abstract

Molecules with their axes sharply confined in space, available through laser-induced alignment methods, are essential for many current experiments, including ultrafast molecular imaging. Most of these applications require both that the aligning laser field is turned-off, to avoid undesired perturbations, and that the molecules remain aligned sufficiently long that reactions and dynamics can be mapped out. Presently, this is only possible for small, linear molecules and for times less than 1 picosecond. Here, we demonstrate strong, field-free alignment of large molecules inside helium nanodroplets, lasting tens of picoseconds. Molecular alignment in either one or three dimensions is created by a slowly switched-on laser pulse, made field-free through rapid pulse truncation, and retained thanks to the impeding effect of the helium environment on molecular rotation. We illustrate the opportunities that field-free aligned molecules open by measuring the alignment-dependent strong-field ionization yield of a thiophene oligomer. Our technique will enable molecular-frame experiments, including ultrafast excited state dynamics, on a variety of large molecules and complexes.

References in corpus (13)

• Imaging an aligned polyatomic molecule with laser-induced electron diffraction
• Diffractive Imaging of Coherent Nuclear Motion in Isolated Molecules
• Rotation of quantum impurities in the presence of a many-body environment
• Impulsive Laser Induced Alignment of Molecules Dissolved in Helium Nanodroplets
• Orientation-dependent ionization yields from strong-field ionization of fixed-in-space linear and asymmetric top molecules
• State- and conformer-selected beams of aligned and oriented molecules for ultrafast diffraction studies
• Laser-induced rotation of iodine molecules in He-nanodroplets: revivals and breaking-free
• Imaging Molecular Structure through Femtosecond Photoelectron Diffraction on Aligned and Oriented Gas-Phase Molecules
• Laser-driven nanoplasmas in doped helium droplets: Local ignition and anisotropic expansion
• Dopant induced ignition of helium nanodroplets in intense few-cycle laser pulses
• Strongly aligned molecules inside helium droplets in the near-adiabatic regime
• Femtosecond Laser Induced Coulomb Explosion Imaging of Aligned OCS Oligmers inside Helium Nanodroplets
• Switched Wave Packets with Spectrally Truncated Chirped Pulses

Cited by in corpus (15)

• Femtosecond Laser Induced Coulomb Explosion Imaging of Aligned OCS Oligmers inside Helium Nanodroplets
• Rotational coherence spectroscopy of molecules in helium nanodroplets: Reconciling the time and the frequency domains
• Femtosecond rotational dynamics of D${}_2$ molecules in superfluid helium nanodroplets
• Long-lived nuclear coherences inside helium nanodroplets
• Quantum-State-Sensitive Detection of Alkali Dimers on Helium Nanodroplets by Laser-Induced Coulomb Explosion
• Unravelling the Full Relaxation Dynamics of Superexcited Helium Nanodroplets
• Laser-induced Coulomb explosion imaging of \ce{(C6H5Br)2} and \ce{C6H5Br-I2} dimers in helium nanodroplets using the Timepix3
• Detecting handedness of spatially oriented molecules by Coulomb explosion imaging
• Molecular alignment echoes probe collision-induced rotational-speed changes
• Oriented polar molecules trapped in cold helium nanodroplets: Electrostatic deflection, size separation, and charge migration
• Alignment of the CS${}_2$ Dimer Embedded in Helium Droplets Induced by a Circularly Polarized Laser Pulse
• Three Dimensional Orientation of Complex Molecules Excited by Two-Color Femtosecond Pulses
• Enantioselective chiral orientation induced by a combination of a long and a short laser pulse
• Laser-induced alignment of nanoparticles and macromolecules for single-particle-imaging applications
• Ionization-induced Long-lasting Orientation of Symmetric-top Molecules