Controlling the Excited-State Dynamics of Nuclear Spin Isomers Using the Dynamic Stark Effect

Stark control of chemical reactions uses intense laser pulses to distort the potential energy surfaces of a molecule, thus opening new chemical pathways. We use the concept of Stark shifts to convert a local minimum into a local maximum of the potential energy surface, triggering constructive and destructive wave-packet interferences, which then induce different dynamics on nuclear spin isomers in the electronically excited state of a quinodimethane derivative. Model quantum-dynamical simulations on reduced dimensionality using optimized ultrashort laser pulses demonstrate a difference of the excited-state dynamics of two sets of nuclear spin isomers, which ultimately can be used to discriminate between these isomers.