Tailoring the Optical Dipole Force for Molecules by Field-Induced Alignment

We report on the ability to tailor the optical dipole force for molecules by tuning their effective polarizability with strong field alignment using polarized fields. We have measured a difference of 20% in the dipole force on cold CS2 molecules when changing from linear to near-circular polarization using peak field intensities of 5.7 x 10(11) W cm(-2). A variation in the focal length with laser polarization of a molecular-optical lens formed by a single focused laser beam was also measured. This provides a new way of modifying this force for many molecules.