IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/nat/natcom/v6y2015i1d10.1038_ncomms8791.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Collisional dynamics in a gas of molecular super-rotors

Author

Listed:
  • Yuri Khodorkovsky

    (The Weizmann Institute of Science)

  • Uri Steinitz

    (The Weizmann Institute of Science)

  • Jean-Michel Hartmann

    (Laboratoire Interuniversitaire des Systèmes Atmosphériques (LISA) CNRS (UMR 7583), Université Paris Est Créteil, Université Paris Diderot, Institut Pierre-Simon Laplace)

  • Ilya Sh. Averbukh

    (The Weizmann Institute of Science)

Abstract

Recently, femtosecond laser techniques have been developed that are capable of bringing gas molecules to extremely fast rotation in a very short time, while keeping their translational motion relatively slow. Here we study collisional equilibration dynamics of this new state of molecular gases. We show that the route to equilibrium starts with a metastable ‘gyroscopic stage’ in the course of which the molecules maintain their fast rotation and orientation of the angular momentum through many collisions. The inhibited rotational–translational relaxation is characterized by a persistent anisotropy in the molecular angular distribution, and is manifested in the optical birefringence and anisotropic diffusion in the gas. After a certain induction time, the ‘gyroscopic stage’ is abruptly terminated by an explosive rotational–translational energy exchange, leading the gas towards the final equilibrium. We illustrate our conclusions by direct molecular dynamics simulation of several gases of linear molecules.

Suggested Citation

  • Yuri Khodorkovsky & Uri Steinitz & Jean-Michel Hartmann & Ilya Sh. Averbukh, 2015. "Collisional dynamics in a gas of molecular super-rotors," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 6(1), pages 1-6, November.
    • Handle: RePEc:nat:natcom:v:6:y:2015:i:1:d:10.1038_ncomms8791
    DOI: 10.1038/ncomms8791
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.nature.com/articles/ncomms8791
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1038/ncomms8791?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Chenxu Lu & Long Xu & Lianrong Zhou & Menghang Shi & Peifen Lu & Wenxue Li & Reinhard Dörner & Kang Lin & Jian Wu, 2024. "Intermolecular interactions probed by rotational dynamics in gas-phase clusters," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 15(1), pages 1-8, December.
    2. Sruthi Venkataramanababu & Anyang Li & Ivan O. Antonov & James B. Dragan & Patrick R. Stollenwerk & Hua Guo & Brian C. Odom, 2023. "Enhancing reactivity of SiO+ ions by controlled excitation to extreme rotational states," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 14(1), pages 1-7, December.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:nat:natcom:v:6:y:2015:i:1:d:10.1038_ncomms8791. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.nature.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.