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Updated: Apr 20, 2026

Direct Imaging of Laser-driven Ultrafast Molecular Rotation
Published on: February 4, 2017
Observation of nondispersing classical-like molecular rotation
Aleksey Korobenko1, John W Hepburn, Valery Milner
1Department of Physics & Astronomy, University of British Columbia, 6224 Agricultural Road, Vancouver, BC, Canada V6T 1Z1. korobenk@phas.ubc.ca.
Abstract:
Using the technique of an optical centrifuge, we produce rotational wave packets which evolve in time along either classical-like or non-classical trajectories. After releasing O2 and D2 molecules from the centrifuge, we track their field-free rotation by monitoring the molecular angular distribution with velocity map imaging. Due to the dispersion of the created rotational wave packets in oxygen, we observe a gradual transition between "dumbbell"-shaped and "cross"-shaped distributions, both rotating with a classical rotation frequency. In deuterium, a much narrower rotational wave packet is produced and shown to evolve in a truly classical non-dispersing fashion.
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