Real-time observation of dynamics in rotational molecular wave packets by use of "air laser" spectroscopy

Abstract

Molecular rotational spectroscopy based on strong-field-ionization-induced nitrogen laser is employed to investigate the time evolution of the rotational wave packet composed by a coherent superposition of quantum rotational states created in a field-free molecular alignment. We show that this technique uniquely allows real-time observation of the ultrafast dynamics of the individual rotational states in the rotational wavepacket. Our analysis also shows that there exist two channels of generation of the nitrogen laser, shedding new light on the population inversion mechanism behind the air laser generated by intense femtosecond laser pulses.

23 pages, 6 figures

References in corpus (1)

• Signature of superradiance from a nitrogen gas plasma channel produced by strong field ionization

Cited by in corpus (6)

• Gain dynamics of a free-space nitrogen laser pumped by circularly polarized femtosecond laser pulses
• Near-resonant Raman amplification in the rotational quantum wavepackets of nitrogen molecular ions generated by strong field ionization
• Transient gain from $N_2^{+}$ in light filaments
• Role of rotational coherence in femtosecond-pulse-driven nitrogen ion lasing
• N${}_2^{+}$ Lasing: Gain and Absorption in the Presence of Rotational Coherence
• Control of ${\text{N}}_2^{+}$ Air Lasing