Time-dependent electronic current densities in chiral molecules
Sucharita Giri, Alexandra M. Dudzinski, Jean Christophe Tremblay, Gopal Dixit
Abstract
The present work focuses on the conditions required to understand time-dependent ultrafast charge migration in oriented and floppy chiral molecules. Ultrashort linearly polarized laser pulses are used to drive an ultrafast charge migration process by the excitation of a small number of low-lying excited states from the ground electronic state of R- and S-epoxypropane. Control over electron dynamics is achieved by choosing the different orientations of the linearly polarized pulse. For oriented and floppy molecules, we find that the charge migration is different for enantiomers when the polarization of the pulse lies in the mirror plane defining the enantiomer pair, or when it is strictly perpendicular to it. Ultimately the choice of polarization of the linearly polarized pulse determines the properties of the charge migration process in the chiral molecules, i.e., the direction of the electronic current densities.