Related papers: Visualizing molecular unidirectional rotation
We present an analysis of two experimental approaches to controlling the directionality of molecular rotation with ultrashort laser pulses. The two methods are based on the molecular interaction with either a pair of pulses (a "double kick"…
Molecular photoabsorption results in an electronic excitation/ionization which couples to the rearrangement of the nuclei. The resulting intertwined change of nuclear and electronic degrees of freedom determines the conversion of…
The requirement of high space-time resolution and brightness is a great challenge for imaging atomic motion and making molecular movies. Important breakthroughs in ultrabright tabletop laser, x-ray and electron sources have enabled the…
Using the technique of an optical centrifuge, we produce rotational wave packets which evolve in time along either classical-like or non-classical trajectories. After releasing O2 and D2 molecules from the centrifuge, we track their…
Following excitation by a strong ultra-short laser pulse, molecules develop coordinated rotational motion, exhibiting transient alignment along the direction of the laser electric field, followed by periodic full and fractional revivals…
We use an optical centrifuge to excite coherent rotational wave packets in N$_2$O, CS$_2$ and OCS molecules with rotational quantum numbers reaching up to J=465, 690 and 1186, respectively. Time-resolved rotational spectroscopy at such…
Observing the motion of the nuclear wavepackets during a molecular reaction, in both space and time, is crucial for understanding and controlling the outcome of photoinduced chemical reactions. We have imaged the motion of a vibrational…
We investigate the dynamics of a rotating Morse wave packet, appropriate for a ro-vibrating diatomic molecule. The coupling between vibrational and rotational degrees of freedom is explicated in real position space as well as in phase space…
Single Particle Imaging techniques at X-ray lasers have made significant strides, yet the challenge of determining the orientation of freely rotating molecules during delivery remains. In this study, we propose a novel method to partially…
Photons carry one unit of angular momentum associated with their spin~\cite{Beth1936}. Structured vortex beams carry additional orbital angular momentum which can also be transferred to matter~\cite{Allen1992}. This extra twist has been…
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…
Exposing a molecule to intense light pulses may bring this molecule to a nonstationary quantum state, thus launching correlated dynamics of electronic and nuclear subsystems. Although much had been achieved in the understanding of…
A proof-of-principle experiment is reported, where torsional motion of a molecule, consisting of a pair of phenyl rings, is induced by strong laser pulses. A nanosecond laser pulse spatially aligns the carbon-carbon bond axis, connecting…
The rotating nuclei represent one of most interesting subjects for theoretical and experimental studies. They open a new dimension of nuclear landscape, namely, spin direction. Contrary to the majority of nuclear systems, their properties…
The capability to control molecular rotation for field-free orientation, which arranges molecules in specific spatial directions without external fields, is crucial in physics, chemistry, and quantum information science. However,…
Nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) is a powerful tool for applications ranging from chemical analysis to quantum information processing. Achieving optical initialization and detection of molecular nuclear spins promises new opportunities -…
In this paper a coherent superposition of angular momentum states created by absorption of polarized light by molecules is analyzed. Attention is paid to the time evolution of wave packets representing spatial orientation of internuclear…
Frontier orbitals, i.e., the highest occupied and lowest unoccupied orbitals of a molecule, generally determine molecular properties, such as chemical bonding and reactivities. Consequently, there has been a lot of interest in measuring…
A classical circularly polarized electromagnetic wave carries angular momentum, and represents the classical limit of a photon, which carries quantized spin. It is shown that a very similar picture of a circularly polarized coherent wave…
We propose an approach to probe coherent spin-state dynamics of molecules using circularly polarized hard x-ray pulses. For the dynamically aligned nitric oxide molecules in a coherent superposition spin-orbit coupled electronic state that…