Rotational Dynamics of Asymmetric Molecules

In nature, light is constantly interacting with molecules (natural processes like vision or photosynthesis). 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 overarching research goal of our research is to make a ``movie'' of the electrons after light hits the molecule by using a femtosecond (a millionth of a billionth of a second) laser pulse. A molecule's natural rotation creates a blur in this movie. The goal of this research is to understand the rotation of the asymmetric chloroethylene (C$_{2}$H$_{3}$Cl) molecule in order to get rid of the blur it creates in the electron movie. Similar research has been previously conducted for the symmetric molecule ethylene (C$_{2}$H$_{4})$. The asymmetry of C$_{2}$H$_{3}$Cl results in complicated probability distributions for rotational orientation after a laser pulse hits the molecule. We solve the Time Dependent Schrodinger Equation to determine these probability distributions computationally for C$_{2}$H$_{4\, }$and C$_{2}$H$_{3}$Cl. The results show that for C$_{2}$H$_{3}$Cl there is a highly asymmetric distribution of probabilities and a unidirectional rotation; this is not observed in C$_{2}$H$_{4}$. This is the first step towards being able to image electronic motion in C$_{2}$H$_{3}$Cl.