English

Laser-induced alignment and orientation of quantum-state-selected large molecules

Chemical Physics 2009-01-12 v1 Atomic and Molecular Clusters Atomic Physics Instrumentation and Detectors

Abstract

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 used as targets for further experiments. As an illustration, we demonstrate an unprecedented degree of laser-induced 1D alignment (<cos2θ2D>=0.97)(<\cos^2\theta_{2D}>=0.97) and strong orientation of state-selected iodobenzene molecules. This method should enable experiments on pure samples of polar molecules in their rotational ground state, offering new opportunities in molecular science.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.0810.2307,
  title  = {Laser-induced alignment and orientation of quantum-state-selected large molecules},
  author = {Lotte Holmegaard and Jens H. Nielsen and Iftach Nevo and Henrik Stapelfeldt and Frank Filsinger and Jochen Küpper and Gerard Meijer},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:0810.2307},
  year   = {2009}
}
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