Berlin 2001 – scientific programme
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MO: Molekülphysik
MO 14: Spektroscopy II
MO 14.1: Talk
Friday, April 6, 2001, 15:45–16:00, H1058
Forced molecular rotation in an optical centrifuge — •P. Dietrich1, D. M. Villeneuve2, S. A. Aseyev2, M. Spanner2, M. Yu. Ivanov2, and P. B. Corkum2 — 1Institut für Experimentalphysik, Freie Universität Berlin, Arnimallee 14, D-14195 Berlin, Germany — 2National Research Council of Canada, 100 Sussex Drive, Ottawa, Ontario K1A 0R6, Canada
Intense linearly polarized light induces a dipole moment in a molecule that can be used to align the molecule with the direction of the field polarization as long as the molecular polarizability is anisotropic. Rotating the field polarization will cause the molecule to rotate. Such a rotating polarization vector can be achieved by superposition of two counter-propagating circularly polarized laser pulses which are linearly chirped at a different rate. In the experiment, we accelerate the rate of rotation from 0 to 6 THz in 50 ps, thus spinning chlorine molecules from near rest up to angular momentum states J∼ 420. At the highest spinning rate, the molecular bond is broken and the molecule dissociates.