Coherent Control of Chiral Molecules

The ambitious goal of this project is to create an enantiomer-pure beam of chiral molecules, starting from a racemic sample, using an experimental coherent state preparation scheme.

The basic elements of the proposed experiments are the following.

A cold, gas-phase beam of chiral molecules is created via supersonic jet expansion. Two levels of a triad of rotational states that are connected via electric dipole allowed transitions are emptied using resonant UV depletion in combination with simultaneous microwave repumping.

Driving a closed triad of rotational transitions using microwaves prepares a chosen internal quantum state of the chiral molecules enantiomer-specifically. This is called enantiomer-specific state transfer; a new method, that I co-developed. After coherence preparation using collimation, state-selective matter-wave diffraction is accomplished using a resonant, absorptive optical grating.

The diffracted enantiomer-pure beam is detected state-selectively using 2D planar laser-induced fluorescence detection.

Eventually, this beam can be used for further spectroscopic or scattering studies or for depositing the enantiopure sample on a surface.

The scheme that is to be demonstrated in COCOCIMO will be applicable to any chiral molecule.