Conference Agenda

Life is a chiral puzzle based on the stereochemistry of chiral molecules and chiral receptors. Tackling this chiral recognition at the atomic scale by taking into account the electronic cloud is one of the Grails of chemical physics. In this talk, different time-resolved Photoelectron dichroism will be presented.

Bromochloromethane was excited using X-rays of ~70 eV at the Br 3d edge. Ion momenta correlation analysis allowed capturing ultrafast photo-induced dissociation mechanism, which resembles a medieval catapult. A strong tension in the C-Br bond is created, which causes a light CH₂-moiety to be slung from a heavy Br-atom in just a few femtoseconds.

Recently, optomechanical manifestations of chiral light-matter interactions have been explored in the form of new optical forces that stem from the coupling between a chiral object and a chiral electromagnetic field. Here, we study their thermodynamic signatures and address the fundamental question of chirality in stochastic thermodynamics.

By applying a blue-detuned laser from a narrow optical transition, we theoretically demonstrate the engineering of repulsive intermolecular interactions, leading to a dramatic decrease in reactive-collision rates, without the cost of spontaneous emission. This allows for a significant increase in the lifetime of ultracold molecular samples.