Short XUV pulses to characterize field-free molecular alignment

We present experiments on field-free molecular alignment of N₂ and CO₂ probed with short XUV pulses that are obtained via high-harmonic generation. The XUV pulses induce a dissociative ionization or a Coulomb explosion of the molecule, where the fragment ion recoil (measured using the velocity map imaging technique) provides information on the alignment of the parent molecule at the time of ionization. We discuss how photoelectron detection may in future allow the determination of molecular-frame photoelectron angular distributions and molecular structure.