Phase and rotational averaged transition probabilities for molecules in a sinusoidal field using the Floquet formalism

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Abstract
The phase and the rotational averaging of single and multi-photon transition probabilities for the interaction of an atom or molecule with an applied sinusoidal field is discussed. It is shown that while the correct interval for carrying out the phase average is 2π in general, a phase interval of π is satisfactory under certain specified conditions. Illustrative two-level examples indicate that if these conditions are not satisfied, the two choices of phase interval can lead to significant differences in the phase averaged temporal transition probabilities which are subsequently essentially removed upon long-time averaging. A numerical scheme for evaluating rotational averaged transition probabilities is developed and illustrated for model calculations involving two-level molecular systems. The examples are chosen to illustrate the effects of rotational averaging, both when a molecule possesses non-zero diagonal dipole matrix elements (‘permanent dipole moments’) and when it does not, on single and multi-photon spectra. Often resonance profiles are sharpened, Bloch Siegert shifts and resonance maxima reduced, and the structure due to diagonal dipole matrix elemnts eliminated, upon rotational averaging. A recently developed rotating wave or Rabi type approximation is used to explain the effects of diagonal dipole matrix elements for both the fixed orientation and rotationally averaged spectra.