Probing molecular chirality on a sub-femtosecond timescale
Raluca Cireasa
(1, 2)
,
A. E. Boguslavskiy
(3, 4)
,
B. Pons
(5)
,
M. C. H. Wong
(4)
,
D. Descamps
(5)
,
S. Petit
(5)
,
H. Ruf
(5)
,
Nicolas Thiré
(6, 1, 2)
,
A. Ferré
(5)
,
J. Suarez
(7)
,
J. Higuet
(5)
,
B. E. Schmidt
(6)
,
A. F. Alharbi
(8, 4)
,
F. Légaré
(6)
,
Valérie Blanchet
(2, 5, 1)
,
B. Fabre
(5)
,
S. Patchkovskii
(9, 3)
,
O. Smirnova
(9)
,
Y. Mairesse
(5)
,
V. R. Bhardwaj
(4)
1
LCAR -
Laboratoire Collisions Agrégats Réactivité
2 Femto (LCAR)
3 NRC - National Research Council of Canada
4 University of Ottawa [Ottawa]
5 CELIA - Centre d'Etudes Lasers Intenses et Applications
6 Advanced Laser Light Source-INRS-EMT
7 Departamento de Química, C-9, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid
8 KACST - King Abdulaziz City for Science and Technology
9 MBI - Max-Born-Institut für Nichtlineare Optik und Kurzzeitspektroskopie
2 Femto (LCAR)
3 NRC - National Research Council of Canada
4 University of Ottawa [Ottawa]
5 CELIA - Centre d'Etudes Lasers Intenses et Applications
6 Advanced Laser Light Source-INRS-EMT
7 Departamento de Química, C-9, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid
8 KACST - King Abdulaziz City for Science and Technology
9 MBI - Max-Born-Institut für Nichtlineare Optik und Kurzzeitspektroskopie
Raluca Cireasa
- Fonction : Auteur
- PersonId : 1359474
- ORCID : 0000-0002-8133-439X
D. Descamps
- Fonction : Auteur
- PersonId : 757072
- ORCID : 0000-0003-0474-0551
- IdRef : 171332474
Nicolas Thiré
- Fonction : Auteur
- PersonId : 918456
Valérie Blanchet
- Fonction : Auteur
- PersonId : 625
- IdHAL : valerie-blanchet
- ORCID : 0000-0002-6464-3879
- IdRef : 155381598
B. Fabre
- Fonction : Auteur
- PersonId : 12870
- IdHAL : baptiste-fabre
- ORCID : 0000-0001-9843-8139
- IdRef : 176205578
Y. Mairesse
- Fonction : Auteur
- PersonId : 741115
- IdHAL : yann-mairesse
- ORCID : 0000-0002-9098-7421
- IdRef : 092551033
Résumé
Chiral molecules that are non-superimposable mirror images of each other, known as enantiomers, have identical chemical and physical properties unless they interact with another chiral entity, such as chiral light. Chiroptical effects arising from such interactions are used to detect enantiomers in mixtures and to induce enantioselective synthesis and catalysis. Chiroptical effects often arise from the interplay between light-induced electric- and magnetic-dipole transitions in a molecule and evolve on ultrafast electronic timescales. Here we use high-harmonic generation from a randomly oriented gasof molecules subjected to an intense laser field, to probe chiral interactions on these sub-femtosecond timescales. We show that a slight disparity in the laser-driven electron dynamics in the two enantiomers is recorded and amplified by several orders of magnitude in the harmonic spectra. Our work showsthat chiroptical detection can go beyond detecting chiral structure to resolving and controlling chiral dynamics on electronic timescales