Search results for "molecular alignment"
showing 10 items of 37 documents
General approach to spatiotemporal modulational instability processes
2011
International audience; In this article, we derive the general exact solution of the modulation instability gain. The solution described here is valid for 1-D, 2-D, and 3-D cases considering any temporal response function of the medium and with possible higher order Kerr nonlinearities. In particular, we show that the gain induced by modulation instability is initial condition dependent, while the usual calculations do not lead to such a dependence. Applications for current and high-interest nonlinear propagation problems, such as 1-D optical fiber propagation with delayed Raman response and 2-D filamentation in gases, are investigated in detail. More specifically, we demonstrate that the 2-D …
Spectral dependence of purely-Kerr driven filamentation in air and argon
2010
5 pags, 4 figs.-- PACS number(s): 42.65.Jx, 42.65.Tg, 78.20.Ci. -- Publisher error corrected 27 September 2010, Erratum Phys. Rev. A 82, 039905 (2010): https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevA.82.033826
Optimal Control of Dissipative Quantum Systems
2008
We study the control of finite dimensional quantum systems by external laser fields. After examining the concrete example of the diatomic molecular alignment in dissipative media, we are interested in the problem of optimal control, where the objective is to bring the system from an initial state into a given final state while minimizing a cost functional. The Pontryagin maximum principle (PMP) provides necessary conditions for optimality, by establishing that any optimal trajectory is the extremal solution of an extended problem of Hamiltonian structure. In this context, we perform the analysis of two particular systems. The first one is a dissipative 2-level system, for which we determine…
Optically Probed Laser-Induced Field-Free Molecular Alignment
2011
Molecular alignment induced by laser fields has been investigated in research laboratories for over two decades. It led to a better understanding of the fundamental processes at play in the interaction of strong laser fields with molecules, and also provided significant contributions to the fields of high harmonic generation, laser spectroscopy, and laser filamentation. In this chapter, we discuss molecular alignment produced under field-free conditions, as resulting from the interaction of a laser pulse of duration shorter than the rotational period of the molecule. The experimental results presented will be confined to the optically probed alignment of linear as well as asymmetric top mol…
Observation d'effets Kerr d'ordres élevés (HOKE) dans les gaz
2011
Talk given by O. Faucher; National audience
Strategies for efficient field-free molecular alignment and its control
2008
Strategies using shaped laser fields to produce and control efficient field-free alignment are analyzed and compared. It is in particular shown that the strategy recently proposed using a shaped laser field combining an adiabatic ramp with a kick is superior to the bipulse strategy.
Target states and control of molecular alignment in a dissipative medium
2006
Received 17 August 2006; published 14 November 2006We investigate how and to what extent molecular alignment can be controlled in a dissipative medium by asuitable train of laser pulses. We focus primarily on the extension of a scheme of control originally constructedfor unitary evolution. The procedure is applied to control the alignment of CO molecules in an Ar gas. Theparameters of the train of kicks—i.e., the intensity of each kick and the delay between them—are eitherobtained by a systematic procedure maximum strategy or by optimization by evolutionary algorithms.DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevA.74.053411 PACS number s : 32.80.Lg, 33.80. b, 42.50.Hz
Excitation of rotons in parahydrogen crystals: The laser-induced-molecular-alignment mechanism
2013
Solid parahydrogen (p-H₂) is known to support long-lived coherences, of the order of 100 ps, which enables high-resolution spectroscopy in the time domain. Rotational Raman-type excitations to sublevels of J=2 are delocalized due to electric-quadrupole–quadrupole coupling in p-H₂ crystals, and the resulting states can be characterized as rotons. Wave packets of rotons exhibit molecular alignment with respect to laboratory coordinates. Here the concept of field-free molecular alignment, induced by strong ultrashort laser pulses, is extended into a molecular solid case. We derive a solid-state analog for the gas-phase alignment measure and illustrate the time-dependent alignment degree in p-H…
Field-free molecular alignment for measuring ionization probability
2007
International audience; We have shown in a recent letter (Loriot et al 2006 Opt. Lett. 31 2897) the possibility of determining the ionization probability of linear molecules by using an all-optical technique that takes advantage of post-pulse molecular alignment. To that end, we have implemented a ‘cross-defocusing' technique producing a signal sensitive to both alignment and ionization. The analysis of the signal provides a quantitative measurement of the ionization probability calibrated with molecular alignment. In the present work, the method is discussed in more detail and applied to the measurement of the ionization probability of N2 as well as to the determination of the ionization r…
Field-free molecular alignment of asymmetric top molecules using elliptically polarized laser pulses
2008
International audience; We show theoretically that a short specific elliptically polarized laser pulse driving an asymmetric top molecule can induce postpulse revivals of three-dimensional (3-D) alignment. By choosing the field ellipticity resulting in the best compromise between the alignment of two molecular axes, we demonstrate that efficient 3-D alignment can be achieved at low temperature. In the experiment, the field-free alignment of moderately cool ethylene molecules is probed by using a technique based on the optical Kerr effect. Control of 3-D field-free alignment opens the door to a large range of applications in chemistry as well as in molecular optics.