Physical Review A
Orientation of molecules with a small dipole moment using cyclic wave packets
Juan Ortigoso, Júlio César Santos Júnior
Abstract
A robust and versatile method is demonstrated to maintain, for an arbitrary time, quasiconstant and strong orientation for molecules with minute dipole moments. The procedure is based on submitting molecules in cyclic wave packets to periodic trains of nonresonant pulses in an electrostatic field. We show that approximate cyclic states can be created by suddenly switching off a long laser pulse. A control scheme to remove the static field without spoiling orientation is suggested, which would permit large field-free orientation between pulses.