Stark-induced adiabatic Raman passage for preparing polarized molecules

We propose a method based on Stark-induced adiabatic Raman passage (SARP) for preparing vibrationally excited molecules with known orientation and alignment for future dynamical stereochemistry studies. This method utilizes the (J, M)-state dependent dynamic Stark shifts of rovibrational levels induced by delayed but overlapping pump and Stokes pulses of unequal intensities. Under collision-free conditions, our calculations show that we can achieve complete population transfer to an excited vibrational level (nu > 0) of the H(2) molecule in its ground electronic state. Specifically, the H(2) (nu = 1, J = 2, M = 0) level can be prepared with complete population transfer from the (nu = 0, J = 0, M = 0) level using the S(0) branch of the Raman transition with visible pump and Stoke laser pulses, each polarized parallel to the z axis (uniaxial pi - pi Raman pumping). Similarly, H(2) (nu = 1, J = 2, M = +/- 2) can be prepared using SARP with a left circularly polarized pump and a right circularly (or vice versa) polarized Stokes wave propagating along the (z) over cap axis (sigma(+/-) - sigma -/+ Raman pumping). This technique requires phase coherent nanosecond pulses with unequal intensity between the pump and the Stokes pulses, one being four or more times greater than the other. A peak intensity of similar to 16 GW/cm(2) for the stronger pulse is required to generate the desirable sweep of the Raman resonance frequency. These conditions may be fulfilled using red and green laser pulses with the duration of a few nanoseconds and optical energies of similar to 12 and 60 mJ within a focused beam of diameter similar to 0.25 mm. Additionally, complete population transfer to the nu = 4 vibrational level is predicted to be possible using SARP with a 355-nm pump and a near infrared Stokes laser with accessible pulse energies. (C) 2011 American Institute of Physics. [doi: 10.1063/1.3599711]