Chiral pulse train

Control of Rotational Directionality with Chiral Pulse Trains... 

Femtosecond pulse trains offer another control knob to rotational excitation of molecules, namely, the control of its directionality. By applying a series of laser pulses, linearly polarized at an angle with respect to one another, either clockwise or counterclockwise rotation can be initiated in a molecular ensemble [27]. The effect has been experimentally demonstrated with a sequence of only two pulses [28], and longer pulse trains [29, 30]. The latter were dubbed chiral because of the directional rotation of light polarization from pulse to pulse shown in Figure 10.3a. Chiral pulse trains enable control of the sense of molecular rotation... 

Figure 10.3 (a) Chiral train of femtosecond pulses, separated by a constant time period r. The... 

S. Zhdanovich, A. A. Milner, C. Bloomquist, J. Floss, 1. Sh. Averbukh, J. W. Hepburn, and V. Milner. Control of molecular rotation with a chiral train of ultrashort pulses. Phys. Rev. Lett., 107(24) 243004 (2011). 

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