Classical study of the rovibrational dynamics of a polar diatomic molecule in static electric fields

We study the classical dynamics of a polar diatomic molecule in the presence of a strong static homogeneous electric field. Our full rovibrational investigation includes the interaction with the field due to the permanent electric dipole moment and the polarizability of the molecule. Using the LiCs molecule as a prototype, we explore the stability of the equilibrium points and their bifurcations as the field strength is increased. The phase space structure and its dependence on the energy and field strength are analyzed in detail. We demonstrate that depending on the held strength and on the energy, the phase space is characterized either by regular features or by small stochastic layers of chaotic motion. (C) 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.