Abstract

The molecular stroboscope effect provides an opportunity to study the entanglement of nuclear and electronic motion. When a Rydberg electron returns to the core of a molecule, it is scattered in a direction that depends on the orientation of the molecular axis. Ordinarily, rotation of the core produces random motion of the scattered electron. In the special case in which the rotational and Kepler periods are commensurate, the nuclear and electronic motions are synchronous, and therefore the interaction of the electron with the core is regular. This case is known as a stroboscopic state.

© 1998 Optical Society of America