Search results for "ultra-short pulses"

Alignment of linear molecules by short duration laser pulses

2005

Alignment of linear molecules is efficiently induced by strong linearly polarized laser pulses. In the case of short pulses with respect to molecular rotation, periodic alignment appears in field-free conditions after the extinction of the field. This manuscript presents three techniques where the value of allows to quantify alignment without molecular dissociation nor additional alignment. They use a weak time-delayed probe pulse which experiences the optical properties of an aligned sample and shows modification of its characteristics. The first of them measures a depolarization due to the birefringence of the sample. The second one is based on the defocusing produced by the spatial distr…