Electric Deflection of Rotating Molecules

TL;DR

This paper develops a comprehensive theory for the electric deflection of rotating molecules, demonstrating control via femtosecond laser pulses, with potential applications in molecular manipulation.

Contribution

It introduces a novel method to control molecular deflection using laser pulses, combining classical and quantum approaches for the first time.

Findings

Rainbow-like angular distributions analyzed in detail.

Deflection can be turned off with laser excitation.

Control reduces angular dispersion of molecules.

Abstract

We provide a theory of the deflection of polar and non-polar rotating molecules by inhomogeneous static electric field. Rainbow-like features in the angular distribution of the scattered molecules are analyzed in detail. Furthermore, we demonstrate that one may efficiently control the deflection process with the help of short and strong femtosecond laser pulses. In particular the deflection process may by turned-off by a proper excitation, and the angular dispersion of the deflected molecules can be substantially reduced. We study the problem both classically and quantum mechanically, taking into account the effects of strong deflecting field on the molecular rotations. In both treatments we arrive at the same conclusions. The suggested control scheme paves the way for many applications involving molecular focusing, guiding, and trapping by inhomogeneous fields.