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Long-Lived Nuclear Coherences inside Helium Nanodroplets

Bernhard Thaler, Miriam Meyer, Pascal Heim, and Markus Koch
Phys. Rev. Lett. 124, 115301 – Published 20 March 2020
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Abstract

Much of our knowledge about dynamics and functionality of molecular systems has been achieved with femtosecond time-resolved spectroscopy. Despite extensive technical developments over the past decades, some classes of systems have eluded dynamical studies so far. Here, we demonstrate that superfluid helium nanodroplets, acting as a thermal bath of 0.4 K temperature to stabilize weakly bound or reactive systems, are well suited for time-resolved studies of single molecules solvated in the droplet interior. By observing vibrational wave packet motion of indium dimers (In2) for tens of picoseconds, we demonstrate that the perturbation imposed by this quantum liquid can be lower by a factor of 10–100 compared to any other solvent, which uniquely allows us to study processes depending on long nuclear coherence in a dissipative environment. Furthermore, tailor-made microsolvation environments inside droplets will enable us to investigate the solvent influence on intramolecular dynamics in a wide tuning range from molecular isolation to strong molecule-solvent coupling.

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  • Received 26 August 2019
  • Accepted 6 February 2020

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.124.115301

© 2020 American Physical Society

Physics Subject Headings (PhySH)

Atomic, Molecular & Optical

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Molecule’s Long-Lived Vibration in Superfluid Helium

Published 20 March 2020

Trapping a molecule inside a liquid helium nanodrop allows clean measurements of the molecule’s vibrations.

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Authors & Affiliations

Bernhard Thaler, Miriam Meyer, Pascal Heim, and Markus Koch*

  • Graz University of Technology, Institute of Experimental Physics, Petersgasse 16, 8010 Graz, Austria

  • *markus.koch@tugraz.at

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Issue

Vol. 124, Iss. 11 — 20 March 2020

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