Picosecond pulse-shaping for strong three-dimensional field-free alignment of generic asymmetric-top molecules.
basic_science · Level V
Where this comes from
- Record sourced from PubMed, PMID 35301292.
- Also identified by DOI 10.1038/s41467-022-28951-z and PMC identifier 8931173.
- Licence recorded as CC BY.
- The licence permits redistribution, so the abstract is shown in full and the full text is available from the publisher.
Abstract
Fixing molecules in space is a crucial step for the imaging of molecular structure and dynamics. Here, we demonstrate three-dimensional (3D) field-free alignment of the prototypical asymmetric top molecule indole using elliptically polarized, shaped, off-resonant laser pulses. A truncated laser pulse is produced using a combination of extreme linear chirping and controlled phase and amplitude shaping using a spatial-light-modulator (SLM) based pulse shaper of a broadband laser pulse. The angular confinement is detected through velocity-map imaging of H+ and C2+ fragments resulting from strong-field ionization and Coulomb explosion of the aligned molecules by intense femtosecond laser pulses. The achieved three-dimensional alignment is characterized by comparing the result of ion-velocity-map measurements for different alignment directions and for different times during and after the alignment laser pulse to accurate computational results. The achieved strong three-dimensional field-free alignment of [Formula: see text] demonstrates the feasibility of both, strong three-dimensional alignment of generic complex molecules and its quantitative characterization.