Controlled enantioselective orientation of chiral molecules with an optical centrifuge

Abstract

We report on the first experimental demonstration of enantioselective rotational control of chiral molecules with a laser field. In our experiments, two enantiomers of propylene oxide are brought to accelerated unidirectional rotation by means of an optical centrifuge. Using Coulomb explosion imaging, we show that the centrifuged molecules acquire preferential orientation perpendicular to the plane of rotation, and that the direction of this orientation depends on the relative handedness of the enantiomer and the rotating centrifuge field. The observed effect is in agreement with theoretical predictions and is reproduced in numerical simulations of the centrifuge excitation followed by Coulomb explosion of the centrifuged molecules. The demonstrated technique opens new avenues in optical enantioselective control of chiral molecules with a plethora of potential applications in differentiation, separation and purification of chiral mixtures.

References in corpus (14)

• Discovery of the Interstellar Chiral Molecule Propylene Oxide (CH${}_3$CHCH${}_2$O)
• Attosecond-resolved photoionization of chiral molecules
• Observing Molecular Spinning via the Rotational Doppler Effect
• Controlling the sense of molecular rotation
• Generalized perspective on chiral measurements without magnetic interactions
• Control of molecular rotation with a chiral train of ultrashort pulses
• Selective Orientation of Chiral Molecules by Laser Fields with Twisted Polarization
• Dynamic method to distinguish between left- and right-handed chiral molecules
• Detecting chirality in molecules by linearly polarized laser fields
• Theoretical description of circular dichroism in photoelectron angular distributions of randomly oriented chiral molecules after multi-photon photoionization
• Visualizing molecular unidirectional rotation
• Orienting Asymmetric Molecules by Laser Fields with Skewed Polarization
• Rotational spectroscopy with an optical centrifuge
• Climbing the rotational ladder to chirality

Cited by in corpus (34)

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• Complete Controllability Despite Degeneracy: Quantum Control of Enantiomer-Specific State Transfer in Chiral Molecules
• Effective two-level models for highly efficient inner-state enantio-separation based on cyclic three-level systems of chiral molecules
• Observation of persistent orientation of chiral molecules by laser field with twisted polarization
• High-resolution resonance-enhanced multiphoton photoelectron circular dichroism
• Probing molecular chirality via laser-induced electronic fluxes
• Fast enantioconversion of chiral mixtures based on a four-level double-$\Delta$ model
• Enantioselective Orientation of Chiral Molecules Induced by Terahertz Pulses with Twisted Polarization
• Laser induced persistent orientation of chiral molecules
• Spatial enantioseparation of gaseous chiral molecules
• Enantiomeric excess determination based on nonreciprocal transition induced spectral line elimination
• Observation of mechanical Faraday effect in gas media
• Detecting handedness of spatially oriented molecules by Coulomb explosion imaging
• Laser control of molecular rotation: Expanding the utility of an optical centrifuge
• Three Dimensional Orientation of Complex Molecules Excited by Two-Color Femtosecond Pulses
• New opportunities for ultrafast and highly enantio-sensitive imaging and control of chiral nuclear dynamics: towards enantio-selective attochemistry
• Molecular Orientation-Induced Second Harmonic Generation: deciphering different contributions apart
• Enantio-specific state transfer for symmetric-top chiral molecules
• Rational pulse design for enantiomer-selective microwave three-wave mixing
• Echo-enhanced molecular orientation at high temperatures
• Enantiodiscrimination of chiral molecules via quantum correlation function
• 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
• Quantum control of ro-vibrational dynamics and application to light-induced molecular chirality
• Long-Lasting Orientation of Symmetric-top Molecules Excited by Two-Color Femtosecond Pulses
• Controlling rotation in the molecular-frame with an optical centrifuge
• Optimal Selective Orientation of Chiral Molecules Using Femtosecond Laser Pulses
• Enantiomer-Specific Pumping of Chiral Molecules
• Inducing enantiosensitive permanent multipoles in isotropic samples with two-color fields
• Optical-pumping enantio-conversion of chiral mixtures in presence of tunneling between chiral states
• Requirements for probing chiral Casimir-Polder forces in a molecular Talbot-Lau interferometer
• Ionization-induced Long-lasting Orientation of Symmetric-top Molecules