Selective Orientation of Chiral Molecules by Laser Fields with Twisted Polarization

We explore a pure optical method for enantioselective orientation of chiral molecules by means of laser fields with twisted polarization. Several field implementations are considered, including a pair of delayed cross-polarized laser pulses, an optical centrifuge, and polarization shaped pulses. The underlying classical orientation mechanism common for all these fields is discussed, and its operation is demonstrated for a range of chiral molecules of various complexity: hydrogen thioperoxide ($\mathrm{H}\mathrm{S}\mathrm{O}\mathrm{H}$), propylene oxide ($\mathrm{C}{\mathrm{H}}_3\mathrm{C}\mathrm{H}\mathrm{C}{\mathrm{H}}_2\mathrm{O}$) and ethyl oxirane ($\mathrm{C}{\mathrm{H}}_3\mathrm{C}{\mathrm{H}}_2\mathrm{C}\mathrm{H}\mathrm{C}{\mathrm{H}}_2\mathrm{O}$). The presented results demonstrate generality, versatility and robustness of this optical method for manipulating molecular enantiomers in the gas phase.