In collaboration with researchers in the United States, Koch’s group investigated how the handedness of electronic motion in chiral molecules can be measured and controlled using ultrashort light pulses. The theoretical physicists developed an interferometric method that combines circularly polarized attosecond pulses with temporally overlapping infrared light to control electron emission from chiral molecules. This method provides insights into how electronic dynamics is influenced by the arrangement of the atoms.

The experiment proposed by Koch’s group was realized by Professor Dr. Hans Jakob Wörner and his team at ETH Zurich. The scientists advanced attosecond chiroptical spectroscopy and succeeded in generating circularly polarized attosecond pulses, enabling them to detect the handedness of electron motion. Moreover, they could detect and control the handedness of electron motion with unprecedented temporal resolution.

“The possibility to steer the ultrafast electron motion in chiral molecules in real time offers a new perspective on how chirality governs electronic processes,” says Alexander Blech, PhD student in Christiane Koch’s group.

These studies pave the way for advances in both fundamental research and applied fields. They provide researchers with a highly precise method for time-resolved studies of chiral processes at the electronic level. Potential applications include technological innovations in spintronics, medicine, molecular machines, and beyond.

Publication in Physical Review Research

Publication in Nature