Controlled Enantioselective Orientation of Chiral Molecules with an Optical Centrifuge

Milner, A.; Fordyce, Jordan A. M.; MacPhail-Bartley, Ian; Wasserman, Walter; Milner, Valery; Tutunnikov, Ilia; Averbukh, Ilya Sh.

doi:10.1103/physrevlett.122.223201

Cited by 84 publications

(74 citation statements)

References 59 publications

(66 reference statements)

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Unclassified

Order By: Relevance

“…Owing to the symmetry of light interaction with the induced dipole moment, strong laser fields with fixed linear polarization can be utilized only to align, but not orient, molecules in space. In contrast, fields with twisting polarization break this symmetry, and were predicted to transiently orient chiral molecules (8 -10 ), as was recently confirmed experimentally (11 ).…”

mentioning

confidence: 73%

Observation of persistent orientation of chiral molecules by a laser field with twisted polarization

Tutunnikov¹,

Floß²,

Gershnabel³

et al. 2020

Phys. Rev. A

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Molecular chirality is an omnipresent phenomenon of fundamental significance in physics, chemistry and biology. For this reason, search for novel techniques for enantioselective control, detection and separation of chiral molecules is of particular importance. It has been recently predicted that laser fields with twisted polarization may induce persistent enantioselective field-free orientation of chiral molecules. Here we report the first experimental observation of this phenomenon using propylene oxide molecules (CH 3 CHCH 2 O, or PPO) spun by an optical centrifuge -a laser pulse, whose linear polarization undergoes an accelerated rotation around its propagation direction. We show that PPO molecules remain oriented on a time scale exceeding the duration of the centrifuge pulse by several orders of magnitude. The demonstrated long-time field-free enantioselective orientation opens new avenues for optical manipulation, discrimination, and, potentially, separation of molecular enantiomers.

show abstract

mentioning

confidence: 73%

Observation of persistent orientation of chiral molecules by a laser field with twisted polarization

Tutunnikov¹,

Floß²,

Gershnabel³

et al. 2020

Phys. Rev. A

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…The appearance of long-time orientation in a gas sample can be detected by means of Coulomb explosion [7,8,14,17,18,43] and nonlinear optics through high harmonic generation of various orders [54][55][56][57], especially by means of the second harmonic generation. Another approach to detecting the induced orientation is by measuring THz emission due to free induction decay of coherently oscillating molecular dipoles [58][59][60].…”

Section: Numerical Simulationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…A pair of delayed crosspolarized laser pulses [26,27] provides the simplest example of the field with twisted polarization, but there are also more complex fields, such as chiral pulse trains [32][33][34], polarization-shaped pulses [35][36][37] and optical centrifuge [38][39][40][41][42]. Most recently, the orientation of chiral propylene oxide (PPO) molecules by means of an optical centrifuge was experimentally achieved in [43], thus providing the first demonstration of enantioselective laser control over molecular rotation.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Laser-induced persistent orientation of chiral molecules

et al. 2019

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

We show, both classically and quantum mechanically, enantioselective orientation of gas phase chiral molecules excited by laser fields with twisted polarization. Counterintuitively, the induced orientation, whose direction is laser controllable, does not disappear after the excitation, but stays approximately constant long after the end of the laser pulses, behavior unique to chiral systems. We computationally demonstrate this long-lasting orientation using propylene oxide molecules (CH3CHCH2O, or PPO) as an example, and consider two kinds of fields with twisted polarization: a pair of delayed cross-polarized pulses, and an optical centrifuge. This novel chiral effect opens new avenues for detecting molecular chirality, measuring enantiomeric excess and separating enantiomers with the help of inhomogeneous external fields.

show abstract

“…63,64 So far, much of the work involved small linear molecules. When chiral molecules are involved, the effect of twisted polarization is more subtle, and in addition to UDR, the light induces partial orientation along the light propagation direction [65][66][67][68] (see below).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Spatiotemporal rotational dynamics of laser-driven molecules

Lin

Tutunnikov

et al. 2020

Adv. Photon.

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Molecular alignment and orientation by laser fields has attracted significant attention in recent years, mostly due to new capabilities to manipulate the molecular spatial arrangement. Molecules can now be efficiently prepared for ionization, structural imaging, orbital tomography, and more, enabling, for example, shooting of dynamic molecular movies. Furthermore, molecular alignment and orientation processes give rise to fundamental quantum and classical phenomena like quantum revivals, Anderson localization, and rotational echoes, just to mention a few. We review recent progress on the visualization, coherent control, and applications of the rich dynamics of molecular rotational wave packets driven by laser pulses of various intensities, durations, and polarizations. In particular, we focus on the molecular unidirectional rotation and its visualization, the orientation of chiral molecules, and the three-dimensional orientation of asymmetric-top molecules. Rotational echoes are discussed as an example of nontrivial dynamics and detection of prepared molecular states.

show abstract

Controlled Enantioselective Orientation of Chiral Molecules with an Optical Centrifuge

Cited by 84 publications

References 59 publications

Observation of persistent orientation of chiral molecules by a laser field with twisted polarization

Observation of persistent orientation of chiral molecules by a laser field with twisted polarization

Laser-induced persistent orientation of chiral molecules

Spatiotemporal rotational dynamics of laser-driven molecules

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About