TY - JOUR
T1 - A molecular conveyor belt by controlled delivery of single molecules into ultrashort laser pulses
AU - Kahra, Steffen
AU - Leschhorn, Günther
AU - Kowalewski, Markus
AU - Schiffrin, Agustin
AU - Bothschafter, Elisabeth
AU - Fuß, Werner
AU - De Vivie-Riedle, Regina
AU - Ernstorfer, Ralph
AU - Krausz, Ferenc
AU - Kienberger, Reinhard
AU - Schaetz, Tobias
N1 - Funding Information:
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.
PY - 2012/3
Y1 - 2012/3
N2 - 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.
AB - 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.
UR - https://www.scopus.com/pages/publications/84857791960
U2 - 10.1038/nphys2214
DO - 10.1038/nphys2214
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:84857791960
SN - 1745-2473
VL - 8
SP - 238
EP - 242
JO - Nature Physics
JF - Nature Physics
IS - 3
ER -