Figure 4. Schematic of the experimental setup used in a switched wave packet experiment. An ethylene glycol jet is used in conjunction with an intense fs laser pulse to create a plasma shutter that produces a “switched” alignment pulse with a rise time of 150 ps and a fall time of 170 fs. This is then used to generate periodically recurring, field-free macroscopic alignment in a cell containing a gaseous sample. The induced alignment is probed by making use of the optical Kerr effect, as described in the main text.
...read more