Enantio-selection by ultrafast control of molecular motion

2021 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 20K21169
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Challenging Research (Exploratory)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Review Section: Medium-sized Section 32:Physical chemistry, functional solid state chemistry, and related fields
• Research Institution: Tokyo Institute of Technology
• Principal Investigator: Ohshima Yasuhiro 東京工業大学, 理学院, 教授 (60213708)
• Project Period (FY): 2020-07-30 – 2022-03-31
• Keywords: キラル選択 / 超高速分光 / イオンイメージング / 回転コヒーレンス

Outline of Final Research Achievements

Two enantiomers possess structures that are mirror-images to each other. Their rotational and vibrational energy levels are identical, and thus they cannot be distinguished. However, the directionality in three-dimensional space of them shows clear difference to each other. In an ordinally gas-phase condition, such directionality is smeared out by an ensemble average, while information pertinent to chirality can be kept when all the molecules rotate coherently. In the present study, we have succeeded in clearly capturing enantio-selective ultrafast molecular rotational dynamics for the first time, by adopting coherent control of molecular rotation and ion-imaging observation of molecular orientation with high-spatiotemporal resolution.

Free Research Field

物理化学

Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements

本研究によって、適切な運動状態制御を行うと、２つの異なるエナンチオマーがピコ秒程度の極短時間領域で異なる振る舞い示すことが実験的に明らかになった。本成果は、超高速エナンチオ選別への道を拓くものであり、キラリティの変換（ラセミ化）は量子論的にはどのように捉えられるか等の未解決のまま残されている根源的問題にアプローチする有力な手段を提供するものと期待される。