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

Nature Physics volume 8, pages 238–242 (2012)Cite this article

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Abstract

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.

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Figure 1: Schematic of the set-up combining the fields of single-particle preparation on the quantum level and single, ultrashort laser pulses.
Figure 2: Preparation of a single molecular ion as a cold, micropositioned target.
Figure 3: Schematic representation of our experiment on a deterministically positioned single molecule, based on the ab initio potential-energy curves of the electronic states involved.
Figure 4: Vibrational motion of molecules derived from the dissociation of single molecules as a function of pump–probe delay for 4 fs laser pulses.

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Acknowledgements

Financial support is gratefully acknowledged by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG), the DFG Cluster of Excellence: Munich Centre for Advanced Photonics, the International Max Planck Research School on Advanced Photon Science and the EU research project PICC: the Physics of Ion Coulomb Crystals, funded under the European Communities Seventh Framework Programme. The authors would like to thank J. Britton, W. Schmid, C. Hackenberger, J. Bayerl, M. Schulze, T. Dou and C. Kerzl for their contributions and H. J. Neusser for support of a continuous-wave cooling laser. We also thank D. Habs for the triggering discussion and G. Rempe for his intellectual and financial support.

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Author notes

  1. Steffen Kahra and Günther Leschhorn: These authors contributed equally to this work

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Max-Planck-Institut für Quantenoptik, Hans-Kopfermann-Str. 1, 85748 Garching, Germany

    Steffen Kahra, Günther Leschhorn, Agustin Schiffrin, Elisabeth Bothschafter, Werner Fuß, Ralph Ernstorfer, Ferenc Krausz, Reinhard Kienberger & Tobias Schaetz

  2. Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, 81377 München, Germany

    Markus Kowalewski, Regina de Vivie-Riedle & Ferenc Krausz

  3. Fakultät für Physik, Technische Universität München, James-Franck-Str., 85748 Garching, Germany

    Elisabeth Bothschafter, Ralph Ernstorfer & Reinhard Kienberger

  4. Fritz-Haber-Institut der Max-Planck-Gesellschaft, Faradayweg 4–6, 14195 Berlin, Germany

    Ralph Ernstorfer

  5. Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg, Hermann-Herder-Str. 3a, 79104 Freiburg, Germany

    Tobias Schaetz

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Contributions

S.K. and G.L. contributed equally to this work. M.K., W.F. and R.d.V-R. developed the theory. A.S., E.B., R.E., F.K., R.K. and T.S. contributed to the experimental work.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Tobias Schaetz.

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The authors declare no competing financial interests.

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Kahra, S., Leschhorn, G., Kowalewski, M. et al. A molecular conveyor belt by controlled delivery of single molecules into ultrashort laser pulses. Nature Phys 8, 238–242 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1038/nphys2214

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