Fast enantioconversion of chiral mixtures based on a four-level double- Δ model

Abstract

Based on the four-level double-model composed of two degenerated (left-and right-handed) chiral ground states and two achiral excited states, we propose a purely coherent-operation method for enantioconversion of chiral mixtures. By choosing appropriate parameters, the original four-level model will be simplified to two effective two-level subsystems with each of them involving one chiral ground state. Then, with the help of welldesigned coherent operations, the initial unwanted and wanted chiral ground states are converted, respectively, to the wanted chiral ground state and an auxiliary chiral excited state with the wanted chirality, i.e., achieving the enantioconversion of chiral mixtures. Comparing with the original works of enantioconversion based on the four-level double-model with the requirement of the time-consuming relaxation step and repeated operations, our method can be three orders of magnitude faster since we use only purely coherent operations. Thus our method offers a promising candidate for fast enantioconversion of chiral molecules with short enantiomeric lifetime or in the experimental conditions where the operation time is limited.

Enantio-detection of cyclic three-level chiral molecules in a driven cavity

“…In the previous CQED method [54] and enantiomer-specific microwave spectroscopic methods [10][11][12][13][14] for enantio-detection of chiral molecules, usually the enantiopure samples are required to indicate the sign of the enantiomeric excess. Note that the preparation of enantiopure samples remains a challenging work for many chiral molecules [28][29][30][31][32][33][34][35][36][37][38][39][40][41][42][55][56][57][58][59][60][61]. In our method, however, such enantiopure samples are not necessary since our method is based on the interference between the intracavity photons generated via the chirality-dependent cavity-assisted three-photon process and those arising from the chirality-independent drive field.…”

“…[53], it has been proposed to distinguish the chirality of single chiral molecule by using the single-molecule model of cyclic three-level system. However, in realistic case, the systems of enantio-detection [4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19] (as well as enantio-specific state transfer [28][29][30][31][32][33][34][35][36], spatial enantio-separation [37][38][39][40][41][42], and enantio-conversion [55][56][57][58][59][60][61]) of chiral molecules commonly contain a large number of molecules. In the case of the quantized cavity field(s) coupling with many molecules, one should resort to the multi-molecules treatment [44][45][46][47][48][49][50][51]…”

Enantiodiscrimination of chiral molecules via quantum correlation function

“…In general, only one enantiomeric form is biologically beneficial, while the other one is harmful or even fatal. Thus, enantiodiscrimination [4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15], enantiospecific state transfer [16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27], spatial enantioseparation [28][29][30][31][32][33][34][35], and enantioconversion [36][37][38][39][40][41][42][43] of chiral molecules have become very important and challenging tasks.…”

“…In recent years, some theoretical schemes have been proposed to implement the enantiodiscrimination [4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15], enantiopurification (including enantiospecific state transfer [16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27] and enantioconversion [36][37][38][39][40][41][42][43]), and spatial enantioseparation [28][29][30][31][32]35] of chiral molecules through the optical means.…”

Cyclic three-level-pulse-area theorem for enantioselective state transfer of chiral molecules

“…By taking advantage of the sign difference property of optical rotations, it has become promising to select enantiomers by designing coherent quantum optical schemes [9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26]. The concept of the adiabatic passage techniques, such as stimulated Raman adiabatic passages [27,28] and shortcuts to adiabaticity [29,30], was proposed to generate efficient and robust detection and separation of chiral molecules [31][32][33][34][35][36].…”