Alignment and orientation of hexapole state-selected molecules

The ability to control the orientation of small polar molecules is an important step toward experiments such as X-ray diffraction and high-harmonic generation, where structural information or ultrafast molecular dynamics can be reconstructed in the molecular frame. We present experiments where we have combined hexapole state-selection and the application of a strong DC electric field with the use of short, intense shaped laser pulses in order to demonstrate and optimize impulsive alignment and orientation of NO molecules under field-free conditions. Good agreement of the experimental results with theoretical predictions is found. In addition, impulsive alignment and orientation was investigated theoretically for a set of molecules that can be used state-selected by means of hexapole focusing.