Coherently controlled laser distillation of chiral enantiomers

摘要

A laser-based method of enhancing the enantiomeric excess of one chiral enantiomer in a mixture of chiral enantiomers, denoted L and D (and related to one another by the inversion operation I), is described. The molecule L and D is chosen so that electronic excitation is to an electronically excited species with stationary ro-vibrational states which are individually either symmetric or anit-symmetric with respect to I. The mixture is irradiated with a series of achiral pulses of coherent laser light. By varying the frequencies, timing, and durations of these pulses one can selectively increase the enantiomeric excess of either L or D in the ground electronic state.