By Madeline Killian

Faculty Mentor: Dr. Varun Makhija

Abstract

Light interacts with molecules constantly in nature. Understanding these interactions gives us more insight into what our world is made up of. When light hits a molecule it is absorbed by the electrons in the molecule. The goal of the overarching research is to make a movie of the electrons after light hits it by using a femtosecond (a millionth of a billionth of a second) laser pulse. A molecules’ natural rotation creates a blur in the movie of the electrons. The goal of this research is to understand the rotation of the asymmetric Chloroethylene (C2 H3 Cl) molecule in order to get rid of the blur it creates in the electron picture. Similar research has been conducted by Dr.Makhija for a symmetric molecule Ethylene(C2 H4). By replacing one of the hydrogen atoms on C2 H4 with chlorine C2 H3 Cl is created. This asymmetry produces complex probabilities for rotational orientation for C2 H3 Cl after the laser pulse hits the molecule.These probabilities were determined computationally for the molecules. The results show that for C2 H3 Cl there is a highly asymmetric distribution of probabilities and a unidirectional rotation; this is not observed in C2 H4. This is the first step towards being able to image electronic motion in C2 H3 Cl.