Electron dynamics and its control in molecules: From diatomics to larger molecular systems

IEEE Journal of Selected Topics in Quantum Electronics, published on
Journal of Selected Topics in Quantum Electronics

Electrons and their dynamics are involved in bond breaking and formation, thus the idea to steer chemical reac- tions by localization of electronic wavepackets seems natural. The formation of a localized electronic wavepacket requires the superposition of two or more appropriate electronic states through e.g. an external electric field. The guiding of such a electronic wavepacket is only possible within the coherence time of the system. In theoretical studies we elucidate the role of electron wavepacket motion for the control of molecular processes. We analyze three examples of electron wavepacket driven processes with direct connection to already performed or ongoing experiments. From these examples, we extract the system requirements defining the time window for intramolecular electronic coherence and efficient control. With this knowledge we derived an appropriate molecular configuration in a pho- toreaction of a polyatomic molecule where a control by guiding electronic wavepackets is possible. For such a photoreaction we designed a new control scheme with the CEP as control parameter which works at high efficiency.

LMUexcellent
TU München