Enantio-conversion of chiral mixtures via optical pumping

Abstract

Enantio-conversion with the help of electromagnetic fields is an essential issue due to the chirality-dependence of many chemical, biological, and pharmaceutical processes. Here, we propose a method for this issue based on a five-level double-$\Delta$ model of chiral molecules. By utilizing the breaking of left-right symmetry in the two $\Delta$-type sub-structures, we can establish the chiral-state-selective excitation with one chiral ground state being excited to an achiral excited state and the other one being undisturbed. In the meanwhile, the achiral excited state will relax to the two chiral ground states. The two effects simultaneously acting on the chiral mixtures can convert molecules of different chiralities to the ones of the same chirality, i.e., the enantio-conversion via optical pumping. With typical parameters in gas-phase experiments, we numerically show that highly efficient enantio-conversion can be achieved. Our method works in the appearance of decoherences and without the precise control of pulse-durations (pulse-areas) and/or pulse-shapes. These advantages offer it promising features in promoting the future exploring of enantio-conversion.

7 pages, 3 figures

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• Enantiomer-Specific State Transfer of Chiral Molecules
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• Direct laser cooling to Bose-Einstein condensation in a dipole trap
• Dynamic method to distinguish between left- and right-handed chiral molecules
• Rovibrational cooling of molecules by optical pumping
• Robust and highly-efficient discrimination of chiral molecules through three-mode parallel paths
• Effect of molecular rotation on enantioseparation
• Enhanced chiral discriminatory van der Waals interactions mediated by chiral surfaces
• Proposal for Chiral Detection by the AC Stark-Effect

Cited by in corpus (8)

• Complete Controllability Despite Degeneracy: Quantum Control of Enantiomer-Specific State Transfer in Chiral Molecules
• Cyclic three-level-pulse-area theorem for enantioselective state transfer of chiral molecules
• Enantio-detection of cyclic three-level chiral molecules in a driven cavity
• Entanglement-Assisted Quantum Chiral Spectroscopy
• Enantio-detection via cavity-assisted three-photon processes
• Enantiodiscrimination of chiral molecules via quantum correlation function
• Enantio-specific state transfer of chiral molecules through enantio-selective shortcut-to-adiabaticity paths
• Optical-pumping enantio-conversion of chiral mixtures in presence of tunneling between chiral states