| Abstract: | Gas phase molecular ensembles with controlled angular distribution play a key role in many novel techniques that aim to retrieve spectroscopic information from the molecular-frame. In the last three decades, most of the efforts in this field focused on the alignment of molecules by ultrashort laser pulses. While in laser-induced alignment the inversion symmetry of the medium is preserved at all times, orientation refers to the transiently lifted inversion symmetry of the medium. I will present recent advances in terahertz field-induced orientation of polar molecules in the gas phase and their unique responses upon field-free evolution. |
