G. Bazalgette et al., PHOTODISSOCIATION OF ICI MOLECULE ORIENTED BY AN INTENSE ELECTRIC-FIELD - EXPERIMENT AND THEORETICAL-ANALYSIS, The journal of physical chemistry. A, Molecules, spectroscopy, kinetics, environment, & general theory, 102(7), 1998, pp. 1098-1105
The idea of orienting molecules by applying an intense electric field
on a rotationally very cold molecular beam has been introduced in 1990
by Loesch and Remscheid (J. Chem. Phys. 1990, 93, 4779) and also by F
riedrich and Herschbach (Z. Phys. D 1991, 18, 153). Here we describe a
n experiment in which the orientation thus produced in ICl molecules i
s tested by a photodissociation experiment. The paper discusses the or
ientation process with emphasis on the effects nonlinear in the applie
d electric field. The characterization of the oriented beam and the ex
periment will be briefly described. A complete simulation leads to a v
ery good fit of the observed signal, but the rotational temperature de
duced from this fit is higher than given by a direct measurement, the
discrepancy being due to the presence of van der Waals complexes. This
experiment has provided the first direct measurement (Clem. Phys. Let
t. 1995, 244, 195) of the sign of the dipole of ICl (I(+)C1(-) as expe
cted) and 3 measurement of the strong orientation achieved.