On the measurement of molecular anisotropies using laser techniques. II. Differential absorption of circularly and linearly polarized light

In this paper we describe a method which yields an unambiguous measure of the state multipolar moments of an anisotropic array of the angular momentum components of an assembly of ground state molecules. The method involves the measurement of circularly and linearly dichroic, single photon absorption and through such measurements, state moments having K≤2 may be directly obtained. The advantages of this technique over polarized laser fluorescence are discussed.