Laser Stark spectroscopy

This paper discusses the development of laser Stark spectroscopy (or laser electric resonance spectroscopy) in which transitions between molecular energy levels are tuned into resonance with fixed frequency molecular gas lasers. Emphasis is laid on the fundamentals of the method, and its extensions to sub-Doppler resolution, including optical-optical double resonance and level crossing. Examples of the use of these methods are chosen from three main areas; the study of the vibrational dependence of molecular dipole moments, the elucidation of the effects of collisional energy transfer, and the detection of the spectra of semi-stable molecules.