With an all-optical technique, we demonstrate the experimental feasibility to create a molecular ensemble with higher degrees of orientation ($|\langle cos{\theta }_{\text{2D}}\rangle |>0.23$) in a field-free space. In order to achieve higher degrees of orientation, two-color laser pulses with longer durations of $\sim 10\mathrm{ns}$ and carbonyl sulfide (OCS) molecules in the rotational ground state, which are selected by a molecular deflector, are employed. To prepare an oriented ensemble of OCS molecules in a field-free space, the 10-ns two-color pulses are rapidly turned off with a plasma shutter technique, in which the relative phase between the two wavelengths is stabilized with a feedback technique. The molecular orientation dynamics after the rapid turnoff of the two-color pulses is observed and well reproduced by numerical simulations.

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• Atomic & molecular processes in external fields
• Light-matter interaction
• Nonlinear optics
• Quantum optics
• Strong electromagnetic field effects
• Ultrafast optics
• Ultrafast phenomena