Fine-Tuning Molecular Energy Levels by Nonresonant Laser Pulses†

Fine-tuning molecular energy levels by nonresonant laser pulses.

We evaluate the shifts imparted to vibrational and rotational levels of a linear molecule by a nonresonant laser field at intensities of up to 10(12) W/cm(2). Both types of shift are found to be either positive or negative, depending on the initial rotational state acted upon by the field. An adiabatic field-molecule interaction imparts a rotational energy shift which is negative and exceeds th...

Redistribution of vibrational population in a molecular ion with nonresonant strong-field laser pulses

Laser induced molecular motion in strong nonresonant laser fields

The optical dipole force from a singe focussed laser beam was used to study the role of laser-induced molecular alignment on the centre-of-mass motion of carbon disulphide molecules in a molecular beam. The translational, rotational and vibrational temperatures of the CS2 molecules were measured to be 3.4±0.2 K, 35±10 K and 250±14 K respectively. The velocity of the beam was measured to be 542±...

Investigations of ultrafast nuclear response induced by resonant and nonresonant laser pulses

We analyze the nonstationary vibrational states prepared by ultrashort laser pulses interacting with a two electronic level molecular system. Fully quantum mechanical expressions are derived for all the moments of the coordinate and momentum operators for the vibrational density matrices associated with the ground and excited electronic states. The analysis presented here provides key informati...

High-Energy Ion Generation by Short Laser Pulses

This paper reviews the many recent advances at the Center for Ultrafast Optical Science (CUOS) at the University of Michigan in multi-MeV ion beam generation from the interaction of short laser pulses focused onto thin foil targets at intensities ranging from 10 17 to 10 19 W/cm 2 . Ion beam characteristics were studied by changing the laser intensity, laser wavelength, target material, and by ...