Alignment of molecules in pulsed resonant laser fields

Giovanni Granucci; Maurizio Persico; Piet Van Leuven

doi:10.1063/1.1688321

Alignment of molecules in pulsed resonant laser fields

J Chem Phys. 2004 Apr 22;120(16):7438-45. doi: 10.1063/1.1688321.

Authors

Giovanni Granucci¹, Maurizio Persico, Piet Van Leuven

Affiliation

¹ Dipartimento di Chimica e Chimica Industriale, Università di Pisa, via Risorgimento 35, I-56126 Pisa, Italy.

PMID: 15267654
DOI: 10.1063/1.1688321

Abstract

We investigate by numerical simulations the dynamics of alignment of linear molecules in resonant pulsed laser fields and its dependence on pulse length, field strength, and molecular parameters. We propose an analytical short-time approximation for the time-dependent wave packets. We provide a theoretical basis for the occurrence of saturation in the rotational pumping. We present a formula to predict the time at which the maximum alignment occurs. We discuss the magnitude of the laser-induced alignment and we relate it to a theoretical upper limit.