TY - JOUR A1 - Pentlehner, Dominik A1 - Nielsen, Jens H. A1 - Christiansen, Lars A1 - Slenczka, Alkwin A1 - Stapelfeldt, Henrik T1 - Laser Induced Adiabatic Alignment of Molecules Dissolved in Helium Nanodroplets JF - Physical Review A N2 - A moderately intense, nonresonant, linearly polarized nanosecond laser pulse is used to induce one-dimensional (1D) adiabatic alignment of 1,4 diiodobenzene (C6H4I2), iodobenzene (C6H5I), and methyliodide (CH3I) molecules dissolved in helium nanodroplets. The alignment sharpens as the laser intensity is increased, similar to the behavior in gas phase. For diiodobenzene the highest degree of alignment, ⟨cos2θ2D⟩=0.90, is essentially identical to the value obtained for isolated molecules in a supersonic beam, whereas the highest degrees of alignment for iodobenzene and for methyliodide in helium droplets fall below the values obtained for isolated molecules. We believe this is due to the deviation from axial recoil in the Coulomb explosion process that probes the alignment of the molecules in the He droplets. KW - Helium nanodroplets KW - Linearly polarized nanosecond laser pulse Y1 - 2013 IS - 87 ER -