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arXiv:1010.0887 · Physical Review A

Motion of spinning molecules in inhomogeneous fields

Johannes Floß, Erez Gershnabel, Ilya Sh. Averbukh

Published Feb 28, 2011• 7 citations
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Abstract

Several laser techniques have been suggested and demonstrated recently for preparing polarizable molecules in rapidly spinning states with a disk-like angular distribution. We consider motion of these spinning disks in inhomogeneous fields and show that the molecular trajectories may be precisely controlled by the tilt of the plane of the laser-induced rotation. The feasibility of the scheme is illustrated by optical deflection of linear molecules twirled by two delayed cross-polarized laser pulses. These results open new ways for many applications involving molecular focusing, guiding, and trapping and may be suitable for separating molecular mixtures by optical and static fields.

DOI
10.1103/physreva.83.025401

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Several laser techniques have been suggested and demonstrated recently for preparing polarizable molecules in rapidly spinning states with a disk-like angular distribution. We consider motion of these spinning disks in inhomogeneous fields and show that the molecular trajectories may be precisely controlled by the tilt of the plane of the laser-induced rotation. The feasibility of the scheme is illustrated by optical deflection of linear molecules twirled by two delayed cross-polarized laser pulses. These results open new ways for many applications involving molecular focusing, guiding, and trapping and may be suitable for separating molecular mixtures by optical and static fields.
We consider deflection of rotating symmetric top molecules by inhomogeneous optical and static electric fields, compare results with the case of linear molecules, and find new singularities in the distribution of the scattering angle. Scattering of the prolate/oblate molecules is analyzed in detail, and it is shown that the process can be efficiently controlled by means of short and strong femtosecond laser pulses. In particular, the angular dispersion of the deflected molecules may be dramatically reduced by laser-induced molecular prealignment. We first study the problem by using a simple classical model, and then find similar results by means of more sophisticated methods, including the formalism of adiabatic invariants and direct numerical simulation of the Euler-Lagrange equations of motion. The suggested control scheme opens new ways for many applications involving molecular focusing, guiding, and trapping by optical and static fields.
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 clockwise/counterclockwise under field-free conditions. We show that unidirectionally rotating molecules are confined to the plane defined by the two polarization vectors of the pulses, which leads to a permanent anisotropy in the molecular angular distribution. The latter may be useful for controlling collisional cross-sections and optical and kinetic processes in molecular gases. We discuss the application of this control scheme to individual components within a molecular mixture in a selective manner.
We consider deflection of polarizable molecules by inhomogeneous optical fields and analyze the role of molecular orientation and rotation in the scattering process. It is shown that molecular rotation induces spectacular rainbowlike features in the distribution of the scattering angle. Moreover, by preshaping molecular angular distribution with the help of short and strong femtosecond laser pulses, one may efficiently control the scattering process, manipulate the average deflection angle and its distribution, and reduce substantially the angular dispersion of the deflected molecules. We study the problem both classically and quantum mechanically and arrive at the same conclusions in both treatments. The effects of strong deflecting field on the scattering of rotating molecules are considered by the means of the adiabatic invariants formalism. The suggested control scheme opens new ways for many applications involving molecular focusing, guiding, and trapping by optical and static fields.
We consider deflection of polarizable molecules by inhomogeneous optical fields, and analyze the role of molecular orientation and rotation in the scattering process. We show that by preshaping molecular angular distribution with the help of short and strong femtosecond laser pulses, one may efficiently control the scattering process, manipulate the average deflection angle and its distribution, and reduce substantially the angular dispersion of the deflected molecules. This opens new ways for many applications involving molecular focusing, guiding, and trapping by optical and static fields.
We discuss the possibility of manipulating the center-of-mass motion of molecules using the nonlinear interaction of a moderately intense, long-pulse laser field with the molecular polarizability tensor. Recent theoretical work demonstrating the possibility of focusing and trapping molecules is extended to consider the effects of circularly and elliptically polarized light and the effect of nonspherical laser optics. The aberrations affecting the quality of the “molecular lens” are analyzed and the means by which they can be minimized are discussed. Molecular focusing is extended to a general field of molecular optics; the possibilities of steering, reflecting, and collimating molecular beams are illustrated. Application of the mechanical force of light to disperse and separate species according to their mass, velocity, or quantum state is proposed.
We consider the optical properties of a gas of molecules that are brought to fast unidirectional spinning by a pulsed laser field. It is shown that a circularly polarized probe light passing through the medium inverts its polarization handedness and experiences a frequency shift controllable by the sense and the rate of molecular rotation. Our analysis is supported by two recent experiments on the laser-induced rotational Doppler effect in molecular gases and provides a good qualitative and quantitative description of the experimental observations.