Eur. Phys. J. D 17, 181-188 (2001)
https://doi.org/10.1007/s100530170021

Measurement of the rotational alignment in the presence of the second order AC Stark effect

Physikalisches Institut, Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität Münster, Wilhelm-Klemm-Straße 10, 48149 Münster, Germany

Corresponding author: ^a hzach@nwz.uni-muenster.de

Received: 1 August 2000
Revised: 2 May 2001
Published online: 15 November 2001

Abstract

The determination of the rotational quadrupole alignment of diatomic molecules via REMPI detection is investigated. In this process a high focal intensity usually increases the detection probability. At high intensities the AC Stark effect may cause a splitting of the normally degenerate m_J sublevels of a rotational state J beyond the spectral width of the exciting radiation. This leads to a selective detection of only certain m_J states with the consequence that deduced alignment factors can be misleading. From the theoretical considerations line profiles are explicitly calculated for dynamic polarizabilities which represent the transition of H₂, in order to fit an experimental (3{+}1) REMPI spectrum and to predict (1{+}1') line shapes as a function of laser intensity. It is further shown that the deduced quadrupole alignment factor is significantly changed by the second order AC Stark effect when the intensities are chosen high enough to observe asymmetric broadened line profiles. Different combinations of relative linear polarizations of the exciting and ionizing laser beams are discussed.