Direct imaging of enantiomer-specific orientation dynamics in unidirectionally rotating chiral molecules

Kenta Mizuse; Ilia Tutunnikov; Long Xu; Yuhei Oyagi; Naoya Sakamoto; Ryo Kondo; Allan Huang; Roman V. Krems; Ilya Sh. Averbukh; Yasuhiro Ohshima

arXiv · 2606.27458

Direct imaging of enantiomer-specific orientation dynamics in unidirectionally rotating chiral molecules

Kenta Mizuse·Ilia Tutunnikov·Long Xu·Yuhei Oyagi·Naoya Sakamoto·Ryo Kondo·Allan Huang·Roman V. Krems·Ilya Sh. Averbukh·Yasuhiro Ohshima

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Abstract

Selectively controlling the dynamics of molecular enantiomers underlies advances across chemistry, biology, and physics, yet direct imaging of enantiomer-specific motion has so far remained elusive. Here, we image ultrafast enantioselective orientation dynamics in isolated chiral molecules. Unidirectional coherent rotation induced by a femtosecond laser-pulse pair generates equal and opposite out-of-plane orientations of the two enantiomers. Applying this scheme to 2-methyloxirane, we follow the rotational wave packets by time-resolved Coulomb explosion imaging with two orthogonally arranged detectors. The measured angular distributions reveal that the unidirectional rotation is identical for both enantiomers, while the out-of-plane orientations are mirror images that persist through both early-time quasi-classical and quantum dynamics regimes, in quantitative agreement with simulations. We demonstrate that full angular distributions provide richer dynamical information, with some qualitatively different distributions yielding similar orientation factors upon integration. Our approach opens a route to real-time observation and control of chiral dynamics in the gas phase.

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Kenta Mizuse, Ilia Tutunnikov, Long Xu, Yuhei Oyagi, Naoya Sakamoto, Ryo Kondo, Allan Huang, Roman V. Krems, Ilya Sh. Averbukh, Yasuhiro Ohshima. 2026-06-25. Direct imaging of enantiomer-specific orientation dynamics in unidirectionally rotating chiral molecules. https://arxiv.org/abs/2606.27458

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