Ultrafast chirality

An object is called chiral if it cannot be superimposed on its mirror image by any rotation. One example is our left and right hands. Just like our hands, molecules can also be chiral; left handed and right handed molecules are called enantiomers. Distinguishing left and right enantiomers is both vital and hard.

In this research topic we focus on using nonlinear interaction of light with chiral molecules. We design and apply tailored light pulses to induce, control, and time-resolve ultrafast electronic and vibronic dynamics in chiral molecules. Our goals are to develop new methods to separate left-handed and right-handed molecules with light, to understand and to manipulate chiral interactions.