A molecular conveyor belt by controlled delivery of single molecules into ultrashort laser pulses

Trapping and laser cooling in atomic physics enables control of single particles and their dynamics at the quantum level in a background-free environment. Ultrashort intense laser pulses reveal the ultimate control of electromagnetic fields, enabling the imaging of matter, in principle down to a sin...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Nature physics 2012-03, Vol.8 (3), p.238-242
Main Authors: Kahra, Steffen, Leschhorn, Günther, Kowalewski, Markus, Schiffrin, Agustin, Bothschafter, Elisabeth, Fuß, Werner, de Vivie-Riedle, Regina, Ernstorfer, Ralph, Krausz, Ferenc, Kienberger, Reinhard, Schaetz, Tobias
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
639/766/36/1122
639/766/400/584
Atomic
Atomic physics
Belt conveyors
Classical and Continuum Physics
Complex Systems
Condensed Matter Physics
Dynamics
Electric potential
Electromagnetic fields
Femtosecond
Ions
Lasers
Mathematical and Computational Physics
Molecular
Molecules
Optical and Plasma Physics
Optics
Photons
Physics
Physics and Astronomy
Theoretical
Trapping
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Summary:Trapping and laser cooling in atomic physics enables control of single particles and their dynamics at the quantum level in a background-free environment. Ultrashort intense laser pulses reveal the ultimate control of electromagnetic fields, enabling the imaging of matter, in principle down to a single molecule or virus resolved on atomic scales. However, current methods fall short in overlapping each target with a pulse of comparable size. We combine the two fields by demonstrating a deterministic molecular conveyor, formed of electric trapping potentials. We deliver individual diatomic ions at millikelvin temperatures and with submicrometre positioning into few-femtosecond ultraviolet laser pulses. We initiate and probe the molecule’s femtosecond dynamics and detect it and its response with 100% efficiency. This experiment might become key for investigations of individual molecules, such as structural determinations using few-femtosecond X-ray lasers. Our scheme may overlap each single molecule with a pulse, focused to (sub)micrometre size, providing the required number of photons at the repetition rate of the laser. Individual molecules are now deterministically trapped in few-femtosecond laser pulses. This molecular conveyer belt may become a useful tool for probing ultrafast molecular dynamics.
ISSN:1745-2473
1745-2481
DOI:10.1038/nphys2214