We explore the possibility of forming an oriented polar molecule directly from a pair of colliding atoms. The process comprises the photoassociation and vibrational stabilization along with the molecular orientation. These processes are driven by a single time-dependent, linearly polarized control field and proceed entirely within the electronic ground state, leveraging the presence of a permanent dipole moment. The control field is found by means of an optimal quantum control algorithm with a single target observable given by the restriction of the orientation operator on a subset of bound levels. We consider a rovibrational model system for the collision of the $\mathrm{O}+\mathrm{H}$ atoms and solve directly the time-dependent Schrödinger equation. We show that the optimized field is capable of enhancing the molecular orientation already induced by the photoassociation and vibrational stabilization thus yielding oriented polar molecules that can be useful for many applications.

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• Atomic & molecular processes in external fields