Thursday 24 April 2014

Steering Chemical Reactions with Laser Pulses

Usually, chemical reactions just take their course, much like a ball rolling downhill. 

However, it is also possible to deliberately control chemical reactions: at the Vienna University of Technology, molecules are hit with femtosecond laser pulses, changing the distribution of electrons in the molecule.  

This interaction is so short that at first it does not have any discernable influence on the atomic nuclei, which have much more mass than the electrons. However, the disturbance of the electron distribution can still initiate chemical processes and eventually separate the nuclei from each other. 

The properties of the laser pulse determine which chemical final products are created.


Short laser pulses interacting with ethylene
 

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