Observation of Bloch Oscillations in Molecular Rotation
We report the observation of rotational Bloch oscillations in a gas of nitrogen molecules kicked by a periodic train of femtosecond laser pulses. A controllable detuning from the quantum resonance creates an effective accelerating potential in angular momentum space, inducing Bloch-like oscillations...
Saved in:
Published in | Physical review letters Vol. 115; no. 20; p. 203002 |
---|---|
Main Authors | , , , |
Format | Journal Article |
Language | English |
Published |
United States
11.11.2015
|
Online Access | Get more information |
Cover
Loading…
Summary: | We report the observation of rotational Bloch oscillations in a gas of nitrogen molecules kicked by a periodic train of femtosecond laser pulses. A controllable detuning from the quantum resonance creates an effective accelerating potential in angular momentum space, inducing Bloch-like oscillations of the rotational excitation. These oscillations are measured via the temporal modulation of the refractive index of the gas. Our results introduce room-temperature laser-kicked molecules as a new laboratory for studies of localization phenomena in quantum transport. |
---|---|
ISSN: | 1079-7114 |
DOI: | 10.1103/physrevlett.115.203002 |