Making the best of mixed-field orientation of polar molecules: A recipe
for achieving adiabatic dynamics in an electrostatic field combined with
laser pulses
We have experimentally and theoretically investigated the mixed-field
orientation of rotational-state-selected OCS molecules and we achieve strong
degrees of alignment and orientation. The applied moderately intense nanosecond
laser pulses are long enough to adiabatically align molecules. However, in
combination with a weak dc electric field, the same laser pulses result in
nonadiabatic dynamics in the mixed-field orientation. These observations are
fully explained by calculations employing, both, adiabatic and non-adiabatic
time-dependent models.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figure
