Grant: Research Tools and Instruments - Category 1 (<$150,000)

Major breakthroughs in our understanding of nature are often triggered by creating new exotic states of matter - objects previously inaccessible for direct laboratory studies. Antimatter or ultra-cold molecules are recent examples of such physical entities whose availability lead to significant advances of science. In the focus of this Proposal is an exotic molecular object - an ensemble of ""molecular superrotors"" - a gas of molecules set in synchronous directional rotation with extremely high angular frequency, tuneable across many orders of magnitude between ultraslow and ultrafast limits. Over the past few years, my research group at UBC has been developing various techniques of controlling molecular rotation with laser light. The interest in the subject stems from the fact that molecular rotation has a strong direct effect on the properties of gases. The properties of molecular superrotors are expected to be rather unique. Some of them have been recently demonstrated and studied by our group. The aim of this proposal is to observe, for the first time, and investigate magnetic properties of molecules set to ultrafast rotation by specially designed laser pulses, known as ""optical centrifuge"". By inducing magnetic field on a single-molecule level, we propose to develop an ultrafast switch of nano-scale magnetism. The technique will apply to a vast majority of gases, even ambient air. Being controlled by a laser beam, the magnetic switch could potentially be activated remotely, i.e. at a distance from the laser source.