Measurement of dichroism in aligned molecules

We present dichroism measurements in molecules prealigned with a short and intense laser pulse, using a balanced detection and a pump-probe scheme. The birefringence signal is recorded under the same irradiation conditions along with the dichroism one. Our results show that the dichroism signal is of comparable order of magnitude as the one originating from birefringence and reflects the degree of alignment. The balanced detection scheme directly provides an heterodyne signal for both birefringence and dichroism. Experiments are first conducted in air and then in pure nitrogen and carbon dioxide gases. A general approach allows us to explain the temporal shape of the dichroic response and to extract the imaginary part of the polarizability anisotropy. Furthermore, a simple model invoking the finite response time of the molecule to the probe excitation provides a complementary perspective. Using this model, the phase shift between the oscillations of the probe electric field and the induced polarization can be estimated. We find that the phase shift corresponds to a time delay of about 130 as (10(-18) s) in both molecules. Calculation of the energy flow between the probe field and the molecules taking into account the phase shift is compared to the experimental data.