Credit: Henrik Stapelfeldt, Aarhus University
Schematic illustration of the alignment, induced by a 160 picosecond laser pulse (red), of an iodine molecule (purple) inside a helium droplet (blue). The iodine molecule is aligned vertically by the polarization direction of the alignment pulse, shown by the double-headed red arrow to the left. The degree of alignment is measured by a probe pulse (black) synchronized to the peak of the alignment pulse.