Molecular Orientation of Methyl Fluoride

Abstract

A beam of CH3F, generated from a supersonic nozzle source is focused with a series of inhomogeneous electric hexapole fields that select a certain range of molecular orientations. This beam was consisted of CH3F in quantum states such that KM < 0. Since these molecules were not yet oriented, the spatial orientation was obtained by allowing them to pass adiabatically into a homogeneous radio frequency field. The distribution of velocities and orientations was measured in different conditions. The transition between M levels (ΔM = ±1) and other experimental results provided evidence that CH3F molecules can be oriented in the laboratory reference frame.