Laser-assisted molecular orientation in gaseous media: new possibilities and applications

It was shown recently by us that an isotropic distribution of molecules in gaseous media can be drastically effected via their orientation-dependent selective excitation by a strong femtosecond multicomponent laser pulse. In the present paper, we analyze the specific effects accompanying the dynamical orientation of molecules driven this way. It is demonstrated that the peculiarities of the post-pulse transient angular distribution of molecules allow original proposals for the generation of pulsed terahertz radiation and also for the determination of the molecular rotational constants.