Orientation of polar molecules with combined electrostatic and pulsed,nonresonant laser fields

We show that molecules with a moderate permanent dipole moment can be oriented with combined electrostatic and pulsed, nonresonant laser fields. Carbonyl sulfide (OCS) molecules are used as a sample. The degree of orientation can be increased by increasing the peak intensity of the laser field and the magnitude of electrostatic field or by decreasing the initial rotational temperature of the molecules.Received: 16 January 2003, Published online: 24 April 2003PACS: 33.80.-b Photon interactions with molecules - 33.15.Bh General molecular conformation and symmetry; stereochemistry     

Time-dependent alignment and orientation of molecules in combined electrostatic and pulsed nonresonant laser fields

We examine the time evolution of states created by the nonadiabatic interaction of a polar molecule with combined electrostatic and pulsed nonresonant laser fields and show that the orientation due to the electrostatic field alone can be greatly enhanced by restricting the angular amplitude of the molecule by the pulsed laser field. An analytic model indicates that in the short-pulse limit the interaction is governed by an impulsive transfer of action from the radiative field to the molecule.     

Orientational selection of molecules in combined laser and electrostatic fields

It is shown that the combined effects of electrostatic and resonant laser fields on a molecular ensemble can be used to control the orientation of molecules by changing their internal state. In contrast to most other schemes for controlling molecular orientation, the proposed method does not require rotational cooling and can be highly efficient at room temperature.     

Dynamics of orientation of adsorbed polar molecules in static electric and laser field

The rotational states of adsorbed polar molecule in the presence of static electric and laser field are investigated. In this study, we have taken two types of polar molecules, namely, one with large dipole moment and moderate rotational constant (LiCl), and the other with moderate dipole moment and large rotational constant (HBr). The adsorbed molecule is considered as rigid rotor in finite conical potential well. The eigenvalues are calculated by numerically solving the Schrödinger equation. We have shown that various properties of rotational states of the molecules are significantly influenced by the static electric field, laser field, conical potential well height and the hindrance angle. Also the use of two different polar molecules for the investigation is justified by the variation in various properties due to change in molecule.     

Trapping of ultracold polar molecules with a thin-wire electrostatic trap

We describe the realization of a dc electric-field trap for ultracold polar molecules, the thin-wire electrostatic trap (TWIST). The thin wires that form the electrodes of the TWIST allow us to superimpose the trap onto a magneto-optical trap (MOT). In our experiment, ultracold polar NaCs molecules in their electronic ground state are created in the MOT via photoassociation, achieving a continuous accumulation in the TWIST of molecules in low-field seeking states. Initial measurements show that the TWIST trap lifetime is limited only by the background pressure in the chamber.     

Simulated nonresonant pulsed laser manipulation of a nitrogen flow

The continuing advance of laser technology enables a range of broadly applicable, laser-based flow manipulation techniques relevant to a number of aerospace, basic physics, and microtechnology applications. Theories for laser-molecule interactions have been under development since the advent of laser technology. Yet, the theories have not been adequately integrated into kinetic flow solvers. Realizing this integration would greatly enhance the scaling of laser-species interactions beyond the realm of ultra-cold atomic physics. This goal was realized in the present study. A representative numerical investigation of laser-based neutral nonpolar molecular flow manipulations was conducted using non-resonant pulsed laser fields. The numerical tool employed for this study was a specifically modified version of the Direct Simulation Monte Carlo statistical kinetic solver known as SMILE. Flow steering and collimation was simulated for a nitrogen effluence with a stagnation condition of 1 Pa and 300 K emptying into vacuum. The laser pulses were 250 mJ, 5 ns pulses at a wavelength of 532 nm. Flow modification mapped out contours which followed the intensity gradient of the laser field, consistent with the use of the induced dipole gradient force along the field’s radial direction and previously published experiments.     

Prospects for making polar molecules with microwave fields

We propose a mechanism to produce ultracold polar molecules with microwave fields. It converts trapped ultracold atoms into vibrationally excited molecules by a single microwave transition and entirely depends on the existence of a permanent dipole moment in the molecules. As opposed to production of molecules by photoassociation or magnetic-field Feshbach resonances, our method does not rely on properties of excited states or existence of Feshbach resonances. We determine conditions for optimal creation of polar molecules in vibrationally excited states of the ground-state potential by changing frequency and intensity of the microwave field. We also explore the possibility to produce vibrationally cold molecules by combining the microwave field with an optical Raman transition or by applying a microwave field to Feshbach molecules. The production mechanism is illustrated for KRb and RbCs.     

Cooling and trapping polar molecules in an electrostatic trap

An electrostatic trap for polar molecules is proposed. Loading and trapping of polar molecules can be realized by applying different voltages to the two electrodes of the trap. For ND3 molecular beams centered at ～10 m/s, a high loading efficiency of ～67% can be obtained, as confirmed by our Monte Carlo simulations. The volume of our trap is as large as ～3.6 cm3, suitable for study of the adiabatic cooling of trapped molecules. Our simulations indicate that trapped ND3 molecules can be cooled from ～23.3 m K to 1.47 m K by reducing the trapping voltages on the electrodes from 50.0 k V to1.00 k V.     

Continuous loading of an electrostatic trap for polar molecules

A continuously operated electrostatic trap for polar molecules is demonstrated. The trap has a volume of approximately 0.6 cm3 and holds molecules with a positive Stark shift. With deuterated ammonia from a quadrupole velocity filter, a trap density of approximately 10(8) cm(-3) is achieved with an average lifetime of 130 ms and a motional temperature of approximately 300 mK. The trap offers good starting conditions for high-precision measurements, and can be used as a first stage in cooling schemes for molecules and as a "reaction vessel" in cold chemistry.     

Controlling electronic spin relaxation of cold molecules with electric fields

We present a theoretical study of atom-molecule collisions in superimposed electric and magnetic fields and show that dynamics of electronic spin relaxation in molecules at temperatures below 0.5 K can be manipulated by varying the strength and the relative orientation of the applied fields. The mechanism of electric field control of Zeeman transitions is based on an intricate interplay between intramolecular spin-rotation couplings and molecule-field interactions. We suggest that electric fields may affect chemical reactions through inducing nonadiabatic spin transitions and facilitate evaporative cooling of molecules in a magnetic trap.     

On the orientation independence of inverse pulsed laser deposition

Carbon nitride films have been deposited in the inverse pulsed laser deposition (IPLD) geometry by ablating a graphite target in nitrogen atmosphere while the spatial orientation of the target (and substrate) normal was varied. Two different orientations were tested, in one of which the axis of the plasma plume was made to point downwards, imposing the maximum gravitational barrier on the ablated species and make them move against the gravitational field while growing the film in order to verify the extent of a possible orientational effect. The thickness distribution of films obtained in different orientations was sampled along their axes of symmetry by stylus profilometry. The results indirectly proved that the kinetic energy of the species responsible for building the IPLD films surpassed the effect of gravitational field, even in the outer regions of the films, where the ablated species were believed to be thermalised. Evidences are also provided that utmost care should be taken to keep experimental conditions, like process pressure, spot size, etc., constant in order to get reproducible results.     

Classical dynamics of polar diatomic molecules in external fields

In this paper, we present the study of the global classical dynamics of a rigid diatomic molecule in the presence of combined electrostatic and nonresonant polarized laser fields. In particular, we focus on the collinear field case, which is an integrable system because the z-component P_φ of the angular momentum is conserved. The study involves the complete analysis of the stability of the equilibrium points, their bifurcations and the evolution of the phase flow as a function of the field strengths and P_φ. Finally, the influence of the bifurcations on the orientation of the quantum states is studied.     

Theoretical derivation and simulation of a versatile electrostatic trap for cold polar molecules

We propose a versatile electrostatic trap scheme using several charged spherical electrodes and a bias electric held.We hrst give the two-ball scheme and derive the analytical solution of the electric held.In order to make a comparison,we also give the numerical solution calculated by the hnite element software(Ansoft Maxwell).Considering the loading of cold polar molecules into the trap,we give the three-ball scheme.We hrst give the analytical and numerical solutions of the distribution of the electric held.Then we simulate the dynamic process of the loading and trapping cold molecules using the classical Monte Carlo method.We analyze the influence of the velocity of the incident molecular beam and the loading time on the loading efficiency.After that,we give the temperature of the trapped cold molecules.Our study shows that the loading efficiency can reach 82%,and the corresponding temperature of the trapped molecules is about 24.6 mK.At last,we show that the single well divides into two ones by increasing the bias electric held or decreasing the voltages applied to the spherical electrodes.     

Orientation of polar molecules by laser induced adiabatic passage

We show that two overlapping linearly polarized laser pulses of frequencies omega and its second harmonic 2omega can strongly orient linear polar molecules, by adiabatic passage along dressed states. The resulting robust orientation can be interpreted as a laser-induced localization in the effective double well potential created by the fields, which induces a preliminary molecular alignment. The direction of the orientation can be selected by the relative phase of the fields.     

The combined energy analyzer composed of electrostatic mirror fields

A model of an electrostatic spectrometer for the energy analysis of charged particles has been calculated. The instrument is based on a combination of hyperbolic and cylindrical mirrors. The scheme for an energy- and angle-resolved spectrometer which provides angular second-order focusing, high luminosity and exit angle 90° from the source has been theoretically substantiated.     

Controlling vibrational wave packet motion with intense modulated laser fields

Intense, nonresonant laser fields produce Stark shifts that strongly modify the potential energy surfaces of a molecule. A vibrational wave packet can be guided by this Stark shift if the laser field is appropriately modulated during the wave packet motion. We modulated a 70 fs laser pulse with a period on the time scale of the vibrational motion (approximately 10 fs) by mixing the signal and idler of an optical parametric amplifier. We used ionization of H2 or D2 to launch a vibrational wave packet on the ground state of H2(+) or D2(+). If the laser intensity was high as the wave packet reached its outer turning point, the Stark shift allowed the molecule to dissociate through bond softening. On the other hand, if the field was small at this critical time, little dissociation was measured. By changing the modulation period, we achieved control of the dissociation yield with a contrast of 90%.     

Stark-potential evaporative cooling of polar molecules in a novel optical-access opened electrostatic trap

We propose a novel optical-access opened electrostatic trap to study the Stark-potential evaporative cooling of polar molecules by using two charged disk electrodes with a central hole of radius r0= 1.5 mm, and derive a set of new analytical equations to calculate the spatial distributions of the electrostatic field in the above charged-disk layout. Afterwards, we calculate the electric-field distributions of our electrostatic trap and the Stark potential for cold ND3 molecules, and analyze the dependences of both the electric field and the Stark potential on the geometric parameters of our charged-disk scheme,and find an optimal condition to form a desirable trap with the same trap depth in the x, y, and z directions. Also, we propose a desirable scheme to realize an efficient loading of cold polar molecules in the weak-field-seeking states, and investigate the dependences of the loading efficiency on both the initial forward velocity of the incident molecular beam and the loading time by Monte Carlo simulations. Our study shows that the maximal loading efficiency of our trap scheme can reach about 95%, and the corresponding temperature of the trapped cold molecules is about 28.8 m K. Finally, we study the Stark-potential evaporative cooling for cold polar molecules in our trap by the Monte Carlo method, and find that our simulated evaporative cooling results are consistent with our developed analytical model based on trapping-potential evaporative cooling.     

Pair creation in QED-strong pulsed laser fields interacting with electron beams

QED effects are known to occur in a strong laser pulse interaction with a counterpropagating electron beam, among these effects being electron-positron pair creation. We discuss the range of laser pulse intensities of J≥5×10(22) W/cm2 combined with electron beam energies of tens of GeV. In this regime multiple pairs may be generated from a single beam electron, some of the newborn particles being capable of further pair production. Radiation backreaction prevents avalanche development and limits pair creation. The system of integro-differential kinetic equations for electrons, positrons and γ photons is derived and solved numerically.