Optimally controlled field-free orientation of the kicked molecule

Efficient and long-lived field-free molecular orientation is achieved using only two kicks appropriately delayed in time. The understanding of the mechanism rests upon a molecular target state providing the best efficiency versus persistence compromise. An optimal control scheme is referred to for fixing the free parameters (amplitudes and the time delay between them). The limited number of kicks, the robustness and the transposability to different molecular systems advocate in favor of the process, when considering its experimental feasibility.

Figure 1

(Color online) Resulting orientation, as expressed by $⟨\cos \theta ⟩$, for the optimal two-kick solution, along with the amplitudes of the kicks.

Figure 2

(Color online) Polar plot of the angular distribution reached at the maximum of orientation, $t=0.3042T_{\mathrm{rot}}$ (solid line), compared with that of the target state (dotted line).