Enhanced molecular orientation induced by molecular antialignment

Abstract

We explore the role of laser induced antialignment in enhancing molecular orientation. A field-free enhanced orientation via antialignment scheme is presented, which combines a linearly polarized femtosecond laser pulse with a half-cycle pulse. The laser pulse induces transient antialignment in the plane orthogonal to the field polarization, while the half-cycle pulse leads to the orientation. We identify two qualitatively different enhancement mechanisms depending on the pulse order, and optimize their effects using classical and quantum models both at zero and nonzero temperature.