We report a direct nonintrusive observation of alignment and planar delocalization of CO2 after an intense linearly polarized femtosecond laser pulse excitation. The effects are measured by a polarization technique involving a perturbative probe that itself does not induce appreciable alignment. We show that this technique allows one to measure a signal proportional to -1/3, with theta the angle between the molecular axis and the laser polarization. Simulations that support this analysis allow one to characterize the experimentally observed alignment and planar delocalization quantitatively.

Propagation of a pulse pair in a nondissipative three-level medium is investigated in the adiabatic-following approximation to a trapped state. The general case of unequal oscillator strengths of two electric dipole transitions in an atom is studied analytically, and the adiabaticity criterion for the matter-field interaction is derived. It is shown that the interaction adiabaticity strongly depends on the relationship between oscillator strengths. A simple expression specifying the critical propagation length at which the stimulated Raman adiabatic passage process is still effective is derived. An estimate of the propagation distance at which a complete energy transfer from the pump pulse into the Stokes pulse occurs is made.

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T h e problem of a two-level atom interacting with a non-monochromatic radiation pulse is studied in the resonant approximation for arbitrary detunings, and without the resonant approximation. By using the time-dependent theory of perturbation the analytical expressions for the transition probability and induced dipole moment of the atom are obtained. It is shown that the upper level population of the atom exhibits oscillations that are absent in the resonant approximation. T h e temporal shape of the pulse is shown to affect significantly the atomic transition probability. T h e behaviour of the transition probability and dipole moment spectrum for arbitrary pulse shapes, phases and detunings is investigated. T h e interference between the spectral components arising in nonlinear processes is shown to play a considerable role in the formation of a dipole moment spectrum.