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Chemical physics

Spinning molecules to bits

Nature volume 407, pages 33–34 (2000)Cite this article

The speed at which a jet can travel or a centrifuge can spin is limited by rotor disintegration. As the turbine of a jet or the rotor of a centrifuge goes round, it experiences a centrifugal force, which increases in proportion to the square of its rotational velocity. As the rotor speeds up there is some point beyond which the mechanical strength of the rotor cannot withstand the centrifugal force and the rotor breaks. In two papers in Physical Review Letters, Corkum and co-workers1,2 demonstrate that rotor disintegration will also happen to individual molecules if they are made to spin rapidly enough.

Corkum and colleagues break chlorine molecules (Cl2) apart by using femtosecond laser technology, which produces short, intense pulses of light whose frequency is made to change with time (to chirp). The oscillations of the electric field of the light pulse, which are perpendicular to the pulse direction, induce a dipole moment (charge separation) in a molecule. The magnitude of the dipole moment depends on the polarizability of the molecule, which varies with the spatial orientation of the molecule in the electric field. When the electric field oscillations are made to rotate, the dipole moment follows the direction of the electric field, causing the molecule to rotate.

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References

  1. Villeneuve, D. M. et al. Phys. Rev. Lett. 85, 542– 545 (2000).

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  2. Karczmarek, J., Wright, J., Corkum, P. & Ivanov, M. Phys. Rev. Lett. 82, 3420–3423 ( 2000).

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  3. Zare, R. N. Science 279, 1875–1879 ( 1998).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Chemistry, Stanford University, Stanford, 94305-5080, California , USA

    Manish Gupta & Richard N. Zare

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  1. Manish Gupta
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  2. Richard N. Zare
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Correspondence to Richard N. Zare.

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Gupta, M., Zare, R. Spinning molecules to bits. Nature 407, 33–34 (2000). https://doi.org/10.1038/35024192

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