Search results for "34.50.Ez"
showing 2 items of 2 documents
Field-free molecular alignment for probing collisional relaxation dynamics
2013
International audience; We report the experimental study of field-free molecular alignment in CO2 gas mixtures induced by intense femtosecond laser pulses in the presence of collisional processes. We demonstrate that the alignment signals exhibit specific features due to nontrivial collisional propensity rules that tend to preserve the orientation of the rotational angular momentum of the molecules. The analysis is performed with a quantum approach based on the modeling of rotational J- and M-dependent state-to-state transfer rates. The present work paves the way for strong-field spectroscopy of collisional dynamics.
Probing ultrafast thermalization with field-free molecular alignment
2012
International audience; The rotation-translation thermalization of CO2 gas is investigated 500 ps after its preheating by a nonresonant short and intense laser pulse. The temperature of thermalization is optically determined with two additional short laser pulses enabling a field-free molecular alignment process and its probing, respectively. The measurements are performed for various intensities of the preheat pulse, leading to the observation of different temperatures which are in very good agreement with classical molecular dynamics simulations. The results can be regarded as a step towards real-time tracking of ultrafast relaxation pathways in molecular motion.