Controlling rotational temperature of molecular beam by using terawatt femtosecond pump pulse

We propose a method to control the rotational temperature of a molecular beam exposed to intense femtosecond pump pulses. In practice, we solve the Schrödinger equation, obtain the molecular wave function, calculate the rotational energy and extract the corresponding rotational temperature. This paper investigates the role of peak intensity, pulse duration and pulse separation on increase of the rotational temperature, both in the classical and in the quantum approaches. The method enables us to control the dynamics of the rotational energy, calculate the increase of temperature accordingly, and draw limiting conditions in which the classical approach prevails.