Molecular beams of He and D are scattered from a ruled diffraction grating in conical-mount geometry under grazing-incidence conditions. Fully resolved diffraction patterns as a function of detection angle are recorded for different grating azimuth angles and for two different kinetic energies of the particle beams. Variations in diffraction peak widths are traced back to different velocity spreads of He and D determined by time-of-flight measurements. A comprehensive analysis of diffraction intensities confirms universal diffraction, that is, for identical de Broglie wavelengths, the relative diffraction intensities for He and D are the same. Universal diffraction results from peculiarities of quantum reflection of the atoms and molecules from the diffraction grating. In quantum reflection particles scatter many nanometers in front of the surface from the long-range attractive branch of the particle-surface interaction potential without probing the potential well and the short-range repulsive branch of the potential.

The properties of molecule-optical elements such as lenses or prisms based on the interaction of molecules with optical fields depend in a crucial way on the molecular quantum state and its alignment created by the optical field. Herein, we consider the effects of state-dependent alignment in estimating the optical dipole force acting on the molecules and, to this end, introduce an effective polarizability which takes proper account of molecular alignment and is directly related to the alignment-dependent optical dipole force. We illustrate the significance of including molecular alignment in the optical dipole force by a trajectory study that compares previously used approximations with the present approach. The trajectory simulations were carried out for an ensemble of linear molecules subject to either propagating or standing-wave optical fields for a range of temperatures and laser intensities. The results demonstrate that the alignment-dependent effective polarizability can serve to provide correct estimates of the optical dipole force, on which a state-selection method applicable to nonpolar molecules could be based. We note that an analogous analysis of the forces acting on polar molecules subject to an inhomogeneous static electric field reveals a similarly strong dependence on molecular orientation