Intrinsic calibration of molecular alignment using rotational echoes

Coherent control of molecular rotations has been thoroughly studied and vastly utilized in the last three decades. Motivated by obtaining spectroscopic signatures from the molecular frame, researchers have invented a large and sophisticated toolbox for controlling the angular distribution of gas phase molecules via their interaction with strong laser pulses. In fact, the field of rotational control has evolved in parallel to and from rotational coherence spectroscopy that aims to obtain accurate measurements of molecular rotational coefficients, from which the molecular structure can be deduced.