Intense-field alignment of molecules confined in octahedral fields.

The combined effect of static octahedral potential and anisotropic interactions with intense linearly polarized light on the rotational motion of linear molecules is investigated. Avoided crossings of quantized energy levels corresponding to pendular states with different degrees of alignment are found by varying the strength parameters for the light and static fields. High alignment is achieved for both cooperative and competitive choices of the relative directionality of the two fields, thus presenting means for controlling the dynamics of impurity centers with respect to the surrounding media.