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Updated: May 16, 2026

Direct Imaging of Laser-driven Ultrafast Molecular Rotation
Published on: February 4, 2017
Controlling rotational dynamics and alignment of molecule by infrared laser pulse
Urvashi Arya1, Ashish Tyagi, Vinod Prasad
1Department of Physics and Astrophysics, University of Delhi, Delhi 110 007, India. uarya@physics.du.ac.in
Abstract:
We investigate the effects of delayed infrared laser (IRL) pulse shape on the non-adiabatic rotational excitation and alignment of a polar molecule. We suggest a control scheme for choosing populations of molecular rotational states by wave packet interference. The rotational wave packets of polar molecule (here HBr) excited non-adiabatically by orienting pulse is controlled actually using the second delayed IRL pulse. By adjusting the time delay between the two laser pulses and the shape of delayed IRL pulse, constructive or destructive interference among these wave packets enables the population to be enhanced or repressed for the specific rotational state. We have used fourth order Runge-Kutta method to study the non-adiabatic rotational excitation (NAREX) dynamics.

