Two-pulse laser control for selective photofragment orientation

The nuclear wave packet dynamics in the potential well of a bound molecule can be controlled by an intense infrared (IR)-laser pulse. The phase of the nuclear wave packet motion is shown to depend on the phase of the laser field and the initial orientation of the molecule. We demonstrate, for diatomic heteronuclear molecules, that these spatial effects can be used to control the angular distribution of photofragments by selective dissociation of molecules with a given initial orientation from a sample of randomly oriented molecules. (C) 1999 American Institute of Physics. [S0021-9606(99)01131-9].