Previous investigations have shown that the instantaneous eigenstates of a molecule interacting via its polarizability with a strong electric field of a nonresonant laser pulse are pendular hybrids of field-free rotational states, aligned along the field direction. However, nonadiabatic effects during the time evolution of the initial field-free rotational state could cause the molecule to end up in a state described by a linear combination of pendular states ͑a rotational wavepacket͒ whose alignment properties are not a priori known. We report a computational study of the time evolution of these states. We solve the reduced time-dependent Schrödinger equation for an effective Hamiltonian acting within the vibronic ground state. Our numerical results show that the time evolution and the achievement of adiabatic behavior depend critically on the detailed characteristics of the laser pulse and the rotational constant of the molecule.

We present the Infrared Space Observatory/Short-Wavelength Spectrometer full grating resolution spectrum of IRC +10216, which is dominated by strong absorption/emission bands of C2H2 and HCN. All C2H2 bands and the strong near-infrared stretching bands of HCN are observed in absorption, whereas the fundamental, hot, and combination bands of HCN involving the nu2 bending mode around 14 µm are observed in emission. Particularly strong is the HCN nu2=20-->nu2=11 vibrational transition at 14.3 µm. The most plausible mechanism for such emission is the radiative pumping of molecules from the ground to the nu2=20 state (7.1 µm) followed by radiative decay: nu2=20-->nu2=11. We present detailed models for HCN that verify the efficiency of the mentioned effect. The HCN abundance inferred from these models is &parl0;1.5-3&parr0;x10-5.

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