Is it possible that an electron escaping a molecule through a quantum tunnel will behave differently depending on whether the molecule is left or right handed?
The phrases " left-handed" and "right-handed" have been used by chemists to describe certain types of asymmetric molecule. Look at your hands and think about the concept of chirality. The two are both images of the same person. They won't overlap completely if we try to impose them. Chiral objects can be found at any scale in nature.
Our taste and smell can distinguish two mirror images of a chiral molecule when we eat or breathe. A molecule can be a medicine and its mirror image a poison if it's sensitive to chirality. 90 percent of the drugs in the world are chyrons.
Chiral molecule have certain symmetry properties that make them great candidates for the study of physics. One of the most intriguing quantum phenomena, the tunneling process, was shed new light on by the research teams.
quantum particles crossing physical barriers is called tunneling. It is difficult to see the dynamics of this motion since it is not allowed in classical mechanics. The tunnel was created by exposing them to a laser field. Mairesse says that the electrons of the molecule are bound by an energy barrier. The electrons are trapped inside a balloon. Even though there is no hole in the balloon, the strong laser fields can cut the balloon's thickness enough to allow some air to pass through it.
Mairesse, Dudovich and their teams are studying the moment in which a molecule meets a light field and how it affects electron tunneling. The connection between tunneling and chirality was exciting for us. Dudovich says they were interested in learning more about what tunneling would look like.
A few hundred attoseconds is all it takes for an electron to leave a molecule. Many of the processes studied in Mairesse's and Dudovich's labs are very small. Two teams posed a question about how the chirality of a molecule affects the escape of an electron.
The barrier was spun around by a laser field. If the laser field rotates horizontally, you should expect the air to leave the balloon on the horizontal plane. The air exits the balloon depending on the direction of the laser and the balloon's chirality. The electrons emerge from the tunnel with a recollection of the rotation of the barrier. This is similar to the effect of a corkscrew, but at a smaller scale.
Two teams discovered that the phase at which the electron tunnels out depends on the chirality of the molecule. The exciting results lay the groundwork for more studies that will use the unique symmetry properties of chyrons to investigate the fastest processes in light-matter interaction.
There is a paper in the journal.
There is more information about E. Bloch and his research on tunnel-Ionization dynamics. There is a book titled "PhysRevX.11.041056."
Journal information: Physical Review X
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