Related papers: Complete control, direct observation and study of …
Laser control of molecular rotation is an area of active research. A number of recent studies has aimed at expanding the reach of rotational control to extreme, previously inaccessible rotational states, as well as controlling the…
Since its invention in 1999, optical centrifuge has become a powerful tool for controlling molecular rotation and studying molecular dynamics and molecular properties at extreme levels of rotational excitation. The technique has been…
The control of ultrafast molecular rotational motion has benefited from the development of innovative techniques in strong-field laser physics. Here, we theoretically demonstrate a novel type of coherent control by inducing rotation of an…
We excite diatomic oxygen and nitrogen to high rotational states with an optical centrifuge and study their dynamics in external magnetic field. Ion imaging is employed to directly visualize, and follow in time, the rotation plane of…
We experimentally demonstrate that the rotation of molecules embedded in helium nanodroplets can be controlled with an optical centrifuge, allowing for the study of molecular dynamics inside the strongly interacting many-body environment of…
We report a theoretical study of the optical centrifuge acceleration of an asymmetric top molecule interacting with an electric static field by solving the time-dependent Schr\"odinger equation in the rigid rotor approximation. A detailed…
We demonstrate experimentally a method of all-optical selective rotational control in gas mixtures. Using an optical centrifuge - an intense laser pulse whose linear polarization rotates at an accelerated rate, we simultaneously excite two…
We present a detailed theoretical and experimental study of the rotation of the plane of polarization of light traveling through a gas of fast-spinning molecules. This effect is similar to the polarization drag phenomenon predicted by Fermi…
We study the dynamics of paramagnetic molecular superrotors in an external magnetic field. Optical centrifuge is used to create dense ensembles of oxygen molecules in ultra-high rotational states. It is shown for the first time, that the…
We introduce a new scheme for controlling the sense of molecular rotation. By varying the polarization and the delay between two ultrashort laser pulses, we induce unidirectional molecular rotation, thereby forcing the molecules to rotate…
Torque is ubiquitous in many molecular systems, including collisions, chemical reactions, vibrations, electronic excitations and especially rotor molecules. We present a straightforward theoretical method based on forces acting on atoms and…
Localized heating of a gas by intense laser pulses leads to interesting acoustic, hydrodynamic and optical effects with numerous applications in science and technology, including controlled wave guiding and remote atmosphere sensing.…
We use state- and time-resolved coherent Raman spectroscopy to study the rotational dynamics of oxygen molecules in ultra-high rotational states. While it is possible to reach rotational quantum numbers up to $N \approx 50$ by increasing…
We introduce a new optical tool - a "two-dimensional optical centrifuge", capable of aligning molecules in extreme rotational states. Unlike the conventional centrifuge, which confines the molecules in the plane of their rotation, its…
We consider a diatomic molecule driven by a linearly polarized laser pulse with a polarization axis rotating with a constant acceleration. This setup is referred to as optical centrifuge, and it is known to lead to high-angular momenta for…
Using an optical centrifuge to control molecular rotation in an extremely broad range of angular momenta, we study coherent rotational dynamics of nitrogen molecules in the presence of collisions. We cover the range of rotational quantum…
We computationally demonstrate a new method for coherently controlling the rotation-axis direction in asymmetric top molecules with an optical centrifuge. Appropriately chosen electric-field strengths and the centrifuge's acceleration rate…
We investigate theoretically the ability of an optical centrifuge - a laser pulse whose linear polarization is rotating at an accelerated rate, to control molecular rotation in the regime when the rigid-rotor approximation breaks down due…
We report the experimental observation of the rotation of the polarization plane of light propagating in a gas of fast-spinning molecules (molecular super-rotors). In the observed effect, related to Fermi's prediction of "polarization drag"…
We demonstrate experimentally a method of varying the degree of directionality in laser-induced molecular rotation. To control the ratio between the number of clockwise and counter-clockwise rotating molecules (with respect to a fixed…