Related papers: Orienting Asymmetric Molecules by Laser Fields wit…
We show that a combination of a half-cycle pulse and a short nonresonant laser pulse produces a strongly enhanced postpulse orientation. Robust transients that display both efficient and long-lived orientation are obtained. The mechanism is…
We present a combined experimental and theoretical study on strong-field ionization of a three-dimensionally oriented asymmetric top molecule, benzonitrile (C$_7$H$_5$N), by circularly polarized, nonresonant femtosecond laser pulses. Prior…
The propensity of molecules to spatially align along the polarization vector of intense, pulsed light fields is related to readily-accessible parameters (molecular polarizabilities, moment of inertia, peak intensity of the light and its…
Planar chiral structures possess a two dimensional handedness that is associated with broken mirror symmetry. Such motifs span vast length scales; examples include certain pinwheel molecules, nautilus shells, cyclone wind patterns and…
We experimentally demonstrate a three-dimensional chiral optical metamaterial that exhibits an asymmetric transmission for forwardly and backwardly propagating linearly polarized light. The observation of this novel effect requires a…
Chirality causes symmetry breaks in a large variety of natural phenomena ranging from particle physics to biochemistry. We investigate one of the simplest conceivable chiral systems, a laser-excited, oriented, effective one-electron Li…
Angular distribution of photoelectrons released by the ionization of randomly-oriented molecules with two laser fields of carrier frequencies $\omega$ and $2\omega$, which are linearly polarized in two mutually-orthogonal directions, is…
We apply a time-dependent perturbation theory based on unitary transformations combined with averaging techniques, on molecular orientation dynamics by ultrashort pulses. We test the validity and the accuracy of this approach on LiCl…
Circularly-polarized light is well-known to induce, or flip the direction of, magnetization in solids. At its heart, this arises from time-reversal symmetry breaking by the vector potential, causing inverse-Faraday or analogous physical…
Polarized atomic ensembles play a crucial role in precision measurements. We demonstrate a novel method of creating atomic polarization in an alkali vapor in a continuous-wave regime. The method relies on a combination of optical pumping by…
The energy acquisition based on resonant excitations are of great importance in chemical and biological systems. Here, the intramolecular resonant absorption of polarized mid-infrared pulses by bulk water and surface water is investigated…
We show that congruent electric, magnetic and non-resonant optical fields acting concurrently on a polar paramagnetic (and polarisable) molecule offer possibilities to both amplify and control the directionality of the ensuing molecular…
The ability to directly follow and time resolve the rearrangement of the nuclei within molecules is a frontier of science that requires atomic spatial and few-femtosecond temporal resolutions. While laser induced electron diffraction can…
We consider few-photon ionization of atomic lithium by linearly polarized femtosecond laser pulses, and demonstrate that asymmetries of the electron angular distribution can occur for initially polarized (2p, m=+1) target atoms. The…
Fluorescent molecules emit light in a dipole radiation pattern that can be used to infer their orientation through defocused fluorescence microscopy. Proper measurement of the orientation requires mathematical modeling of the radiation…
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 have investigated the angle-resolved ATI spectrum of oriented molecules in the IR+XUV co-rotating circular laser fields. According to the different roles of IR and XUV laser in the ionization process, we purposefully adjust the photon…
We provide a theory of the deflection of polar and non-polar rotating molecules by inhomogeneous static electric field. Rainbow-like features in the angular distribution of the scattered molecules are analyzed in detail. Furthermore, we…
Photoassociation of ultracold atoms is shown to lead to alignment of the product molecules along the excitation laser polarization axis. We theoretically investigate pulsed photoassociation of $^{87}Rb$ atoms into a specific weakly-bound…
Recently developed circularly polarized X-ray light sources can probe ultrafast chiral electronic and nuclear dynamics through spatially localized resonant core transitions. We present simulations of time-resolved circular dichroism (TRCD)…