Molecules in selected rotational states can remain well aligned for extended periods of time in the presence of an appropriate periodic train of nonresonant laser pulses. Here, we show that these states can be prepared by slowly switching the electromagnetic field amplitude during a sequence of laser pulses. For low-temperature ensembles, a high degree of alignment can be achieved by designing ...

Excited state dynamics of deprotonated and protonated fluorescein were investigated by polarization dependent femtosecond time-resolved pump-probe photofragmentation in a 3D ion trap. Transients of deprotonated fluorescein exhibit vibrational wavepacket dynamics with weak polarization dependence. Transients of protonated fluorescein show only effects of molecular alignment and rotational dephas...

We demonstrate the possibility of determining the dependence of ionization probabilities on the alignment of molecules in a double-pulse laser experiment. A short pump pulse is used to generate a rotational wave packet which produces aligned molecules during the periods of rotational wave packet revival. The ionization probabilities by a subsequent probe laser vs the time delay are calculated f...

The effects of the residual proton-neutron interactions on bandcrossing features are studied by means of shell model calculations for nucleons in a high-j intruder orbital. The presence of an odd-nucleon shifts the frequency of the alignment of two nucleons of the other kind along the axis of rotation. It is shown that the anomalous delayed crossing observed in nuclei with aligning neutrons and...