Generalized Stern-Gerlach Effect for Chiral Molecules

Yong Li, C. Bruder, and C. P. Sun
Phys. Rev. Lett. 99, 130403 – Published 26 September 2007

Abstract

The Stern-Gerlach effect is well known as spin-dependent splitting of a beam of atoms with magnetic moments by a magnetic-field gradient. Here, we show that an induced gauge potential may lead to a similar effect for chiral molecules. In the presence of three inhomogeneous light fields, the center of mass of a three-level chiral molecule is subject to an optically induced gauge potential, and the internal dynamics of the molecule can be described as an adiabatic evolution in the reduced pseudospin subspace of the two lowest energy levels. We demonstrate numerically that such an induced gauge potential can lead to observable pseudospin-dependent and chirality-dependent generalized Stern-Gerlach effects for mixed left- and right-handed chiral molecules under realistic conditions.

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  • Received 4 May 2007

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.99.130403

©2007 American Physical Society

Authors & Affiliations

Yong Li1, C. Bruder1, and C. P. Sun2

  • 1Department of Physics, University of Basel, Klingelbergstrasse 82, 4056 Basel, Switzerland
  • 2Institute of Theoretical Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100080, China

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Issue

Vol. 99, Iss. 13 — 28 September 2007

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