Control of laser-induced nonadiabatic molecular alignment in dissipative media

Laser-induced nonadiabatic alignment in nitrogen and mixtures of nitrogen with Ar gas was investigated using the ultrafast optical Kerr effect in the collinear pump-probe setup. We find that dissipative media produce desired alignment characteristics in distinct manners to decoherence and to population relaxation. The results show that the intense laser alignment can be used as a control tool of molecular dynamics in dissipative environments.