Ultimate field-free molecular alignment by combined adiabatic-impulsive field design

TL;DR

This paper introduces a novel laser pulse design combining adiabatic and impulsive fields to achieve perfect, saturation-free molecular alignment and orientation, surpassing previous limitations with optimized energy distribution and pulse shaping techniques.

Contribution

It presents a new combined adiabatic-impulsive pulse scheme that enables unprecedented molecular alignment and orientation without saturation effects.

Findings

Achieves near-perfect postpulse molecular alignment.

Demonstrates the effectiveness of combined pulse shaping techniques.

Predicts high degrees of molecular orientation using designed half-cycle pulses.

Abstract

We show that a laser pulse designed as an adiabatic ramp followed by a kick allows one to reach a perfect postpulse molecular alignment, free of saturation. The mechanism is based on an optimized distribution of the energy between a weakly efficient but non saturating adiabatic ramp and an efficient but saturating impulsive field. Unprecedent degrees of alignment are predicted using state-of-the-art pulse shaping techniques and non-destructive field intensities. The scheme can be extended to reach high degrees of orientation of polar molecules using designed half-cycle pulses.