Project Details
Projekt
Charge-directed reactivity of molecules and its control by short laser pulses
Applicant
Professor Dr. Alexander Kuleff
Subject Area
Optics, Quantum Optics and Physics of Atoms, Molecules and Plasmas
Term
from 2015 to 2022
Project identifier
Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 281241953
Exposing molecules to ultrashort laser pulses can trigger pure electron dynamics in the excited or ionized system. In the case of ionization, these dynamics may manifest as an ultrafast migration of the initially created hole-charge throughout the system and were termed charge migration. Due to the coupling between the electronic and the nuclear motion, the control over the pure electron dynamics offers the extremely interesting possibility to steer the succeeding chemical reactivity by predetermining the reaction outcome at a very early stage.That is why, the charge-migration phenomenon increasingly attracts the attention of the scientific community and at present several groups are preparing experiments to study the process using novel attosecond pulse techniques. In the first period of this project we developed schemes and protocols that allow to design ultrashort laser pulses that can efficiently control the electronic charge migration process in polyatomic molecules.The main goal of the renewal project is to develop methodologies allowing to treat purely quantum mechanically the coupled electron-nuclear dynamics of moderate size molecular cations in the presence of a laser field and to apply this methodology to experimentally interesting systems.This will allow to answer the key question of attochemistry, namely can we steer chemical reactions in molecular cations by manipulating the pure electronic charge-migration step. Such calculations will, on onehand, provide the experimentalists the needed conceptual understanding and help in interpreting the experimental results, and,on the other hand, will guide future experimental efforts by proposing interesting systems and effects to be measured.
DFG Programme
Priority Programmes
