Subfemtosecond pulse generation by rotational molecular modulation.

We extend a recent suggestion for the generation of subfemtosecond pulses by molecular modulation [Phys. Rev. Lett. 81, 2894 (1998)] to the rotational spectrum of molecular hydrogen (H(2)) . When a rotational transition |a? ? |b? is strongly driven (|rho(ab) |=0.5) the generation and phase-slip lengths are of the same order and the Raman spectrum has approximately Bessel function sideband amplitudes. Numerical simulation predicts that this spectrum (generated in a 14-cm-long cell at 1-atm pressure of H(2)) will compress into a train of pulses with 94-fs pulse separation and a pulse length of 0.5 fs.