2005/06/30 by Julien Salomon, C. M. Dion, Claude M. Dion +1 · 2 citations
Physics and Astronomy · #Advanced Chemical Physics Studies #Laser-Matter Interactions and Applications #Spectroscopy and Quantum Chemical Studies #physics.chem-ph #quant-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.1063/1.2049270
published as J. Chem. Phys. 123, 144310 (2005) · 14 pages, 12 figures
arxiv created 2005/08/02 · openalex publication_date 2005/10/08 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
We study the control by electromagnetic fields of molecular alignment and orientation in a linear, rigid-rotor model. With the help of a monotonically convergent algorithm, we find that the optimal field is in the microwave part of the spectrum and acts by resonantly exciting the rotation of the molecule progressively from the ground state, i.e., by rotational ladder climbing. This mechanism is present not only when maximizing orientation or alignment, but also when using prescribed target states that simultaneously optimize the efficiency of orientation/alignment and its duration. The extension of the optimization method to consider a finite rotational temperature is also presented.