Aleksey Korobenko

Effects of ultrafast molecular rotation on collisional decoherence.

Using an optical centrifuge to control molecular rotation in an extremely broad range of angular momenta, we study coherent rotational dynamics of nitrogen molecules in the presence of collisions. We cover the range of rotational quantum numbers between J=8 and J=66 at room temperature and study a crossover between the adiabatic and nonadiabatic regimes of rotational relaxation, which cannot be easily accessed by thermal means. We demonstrate that the rate of rotational decoherence changes by more than an order of magnitude in this range of J values and show that its dependence on J can be described by a simplified scaling law.

Dynamics of molecular superrotors in an external magnetic field

We excite diatomic oxygen and nitrogen to high rotational states with an optical centrifuge and study their dynamics in external magnetic field. Ion imaging is employed to directly visualize, and follow in time, the rotation plane of molecular superrotors. The two different mechanisms of interaction between the magnetic field and the molecular angular momentum in paramagnetic oxygen and non-magnetic nitrogen lead to the qualitatively different behaviour. In nitrogen, we observe the precession of the molecular angular momentum around the field vector. In oxygen, strong spin-rotation coupling results in faster and richer dynamics, encompassing the splitting of the rotation plane in three separate components. As the centrifuged molecules evolve with no significant dispersion of the molecular wave function, the observed magnetic interaction presents an efficient mechanism for controlling the plane of molecular rotation.

Rotational spectroscopy with an optical centrifuge

We demonstrate a new spectroscopic method for studying electronic transitions in molecules with extremely broad range of angular momentum. We employ an optical centrifuge to create narrow rotational wave packets in the ground electronic state of (16)O2. Using the technique of resonance-enhanced multi-photon ionization, we record the spectrum of multiple ro-vibrational transitions between X(3)Σg(-) and C(3)Πg electronic manifolds of oxygen. Direct control of rotational excitation, extending to rotational quantum numbers as high as N ≳ 120, enables us to interpret the complex structure of rotational spectra of C(3)Πg beyond thermally accessible levels.

Ultrafast Magnetization of a Dense Molecular Gas with an Optical Centrifuge

Strong laser-induced magnetization of oxygen gas at room temperature and atmospheric pressure is achieved experimentally on the subnanosecond time scale. The method is based on controlling the electronic spin of paramagnetic molecules by means of manipulating their rotation with an optical centrifuge. Spin-rotational coupling results in a high degree of spin polarization on the order of one Bohr magneton per centrifuged molecule. Owing to the nonresonant interaction with the laser pulses, the demonstrated technique is applicable to a broad class of paramagnetic rotors. Executed in a high-density gas, it may offer an efficient way of generating macroscopic magnetic fields remotely (as shown in this work) and producing a large amount of spin-polarized electrons.

Coherent spin?rotational dynamics of oxygen superrotors

We use state- and time-resolved coherent Raman spectroscopy to study the rotational dynamics of oxygen molecules in ultra-high rotational states. While it is possible to reach rotational quantum numbers up to by increasing the gas temperature to 1500 K, low population levels and gas densities result in correspondingly weak optical response. By spinning molecules with an optical centrifuge, we efficiently excite extreme rotational states with in high-density room temperature ensembles. Fast molecular rotation results in the enhanced robustness of the created rotational wave packets against collisions, enabling us to observe the effects of weak spin?rotation coupling in the coherent rotational dynamics of oxygen. The decay rate of spin?rotational coherence due to collisions is measured as a function of the molecular angular momentum and its dependence on the collisional adiabaticity parameter is discussed. We find that at high values of N, the rotational decoherence of oxygen is much faster than that of the previously studied non-magnetic nitrogen molecules, pointing at the effects of spin relaxation in paramagnetic gases.

Field-free long-lived alignment of molecules with a two-dimensional optical centrifuge

We introduce a new optical tool a “two-dimensional optical centrifuge”, capable of aligning molecules in extreme rotational states. Unlike the conventional centrifuge, which confines the molecules in the plane of their rotation, its two-dimensional version aligns the molecules along a well-defined axis, similarly to the effect of a single linearly polarized laser pulse, but at a much higher level of rotational excitation. The increased robustness of ultra-high rotational states with respect to collisions results in a longer life time of the created alignment in dense media, offering new possibilities for studying and utilizing aligned molecular ensembles under ambient conditions.

Probing molecular potentials with an optical centrifuge

We use an optical centrifuge to excite coherent rotational wave packets in N2O, OCS, and CS2 molecules with rotational quantum numbers reaching up to J≈465, 690, and 1186, respectively. Time-resolved rotational spectroscopy at such ultra-high levels of rotational excitation can be used as a sensitive tool to probe the molecular potential energy surface at internuclear distances far from their equilibrium values. Significant bond stretching in the centrifuged molecules results in the growing period of the rotational revivals, which are experimentally detected using coherent Raman scattering. We measure the revival period as a function of the centrifuge-induced rotational frequency and compare it with the numerical calculations based on the known Morse-cosine potentials.

Sound emission from the gas of molecular superrotors

We use an optical centrifuge to deposit a controllable amount of rotational energy into dense molecular ensembles. Subsequent rotation-translation energy transfer, mediated by thermal collisions, results in the localized heating of the gas and generates strong sound wave, clearly audible to the unaided ear. For the first time, the amplitude of the sound signal is analyzed as a function of the experimentally measured rotational energy and linear proportionality between the two observables is established.