Related papers: Field-free long-lived alignment of molecules in ex…

We use an optical centrifuge to align asymmetric top $\mathrm{SO_2}$ molecules by adiabatically spinning their most polarizable O-O axis. The effective centrifugal potential in the rotating frame confines sulfur atoms to the plane of the…

The control of ultrafast molecular rotational motion has benefited from the development of innovative techniques in strong-field laser physics. Here, we theoretically demonstrate a novel type of coherent control by inducing rotation of an…

Since its invention in 1999, optical centrifuge has become a powerful tool for controlling molecular rotation and studying molecular dynamics and molecular properties at extreme levels of rotational excitation. The technique has been…

We computationally demonstrate a new method for coherently controlling the rotation-axis direction in asymmetric top molecules with an optical centrifuge. Appropriately chosen electric-field strengths and the centrifuge's acceleration rate…

Alignment and orientation of molecules by intense, ultrashort laser fields are crucial for a variety of applications in physics and chemistry. These include control of high harmonics generation, molecular orbitals tomography, control of…

We propose and computationally study a method for simultaneously orienting the angular momentum of asymmetric top molecules along: 1) a laboratory-fixed direction; 2) the molecular intermediate moment of inertia axis; 3) the laser field…

We show that circularly polarized femtosecond laser pulses produce field-free alignment in linear and planar molecules. We study the rotational wavepacket evolution of O$_2$ and benzene created by circularly polarized light. For benzene, we…

We investigate theoretically the ability of an optical centrifuge - a laser pulse whose linear polarization is rotating at an accelerated rate, to control molecular rotation in the regime when the rigid-rotor approximation breaks down due…

Molecules with their axes sharply confined in space, available through laser-induced alignment methods, are essential for many current experiments, including ultrafast molecular imaging. Most of these applications require both that the…

We demonstrate experimentally a method of all-optical selective rotational control in gas mixtures. Using an optical centrifuge - an intense laser pulse whose linear polarization rotates at an accelerated rate, we simultaneously excite two…

An optical centrifuge is a laser pulse which enables controlled rotational excitation of molecules. Centrifuged molecules rotating with well-defined angular frequencies are ideal candidates to probe many-body quantum systems at the…

We introduce a new scheme for controlling the sense of molecular rotation. By varying the polarization and the delay between two ultrashort laser pulses, we induce unidirectional molecular rotation, thereby forcing the molecules to rotate…

A strong inhomogeneous static electric field is used to spatially disperse a supersonic beam of polar molecules, according to their quantum state. We show that the molecules residing in the lowest-lying rotational states can be selected and…

We consider solid surface scattering of molecules that were subject to strong non-resonant ultrashort laser pulses just before hitting the surface. The pulses modify the rotational states of the molecules, causing their field free…

Extremely fast rotating molecules carrying significantly more energy in their rotation than in any other degree of freedom are known as "super rotors". It has been speculated that super rotors may exhibit a number of unique properties.…

In recent years it became possible to align molecules in free space using ultrashort laser pulses. Here we explore two schemes for controlling molecule-surface scattering process, which are based on the laser-induced molecular alignment. In…

We outline the design and characterization of a laser pulse shaper, which creates an ``ultraslow optical centrifuge'' - a linearly polarized field whose polarization vector rotates with arbitrarily low angular acceleration. By directly…

We consider deflection of polarizable molecules by inhomogeneous optical fields, and analyze the role of molecular orientation and rotation in the scattering process. It is shown that molecular rotation induces spectacular rainbow-like…

Several laser techniques have been suggested and demonstrated recently for preparing polarizable molecules in rapidly spinning states with a disc-like angular distribution. We consider motion of these spinning discs in inhomogeneous fields,…

We show that field-free molecular orientation induced by a half-cycle pulse may be considerably enhanced by an additional laser pulse inducing molecular anti-alignment. Two qualitatively different enhancement mechanisms are identified…