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Abstract

This chapter describes a versatile technique to control molecular rotation and
translation. The technique is based on the combined effect of external electric fields
that act concurrently on the molecular permanent and induced dipole moments. This
synergistic effect arises for any polar molecule, as only an anisotropic polarizability,
along with a permanent dipole moment, is required. This is always available in polar
molecules. The effect of the combined fields can be achieved either by
superimposing an electrostatic and a far-off resonant optical field (i.e., one that
supplies electric field strength but does not cause transitions) that act, respectively,
on the molecule’s permanent and induced electric dipole, or by making use of a
unipolar electromagnetic pulse that seizes the permanent and induced dipole
moments simultaneously. If the combined electric fields are homogeneous, only
molecular rotation is affected, whereas inhomogeneous fields affect both molecular
rotation and translation. As noted in the chapter, the ability to manipulate molecular
rotation and translation has wide-ranging applications – in research areas as diverse
as reaction dynamics, spectroscopy, higher harmonic generation and molecular orbital imaging, the focusing and trapping of molecules, as well as quantum
simulation and computing.