  We study, analytically as well as numerically, the dynamics that arises from
the interaction of a polar polarizable rigid rotor with single unipolar
electromagnetic pulses of varying length, $\Delta \tau$, with respect to the
rotational period of the rotor, $\tau_r$. In the sudden, non-adiabatic limit,
$\Delta \tau \ll \tau_r$, we derive analytic expressions for the rotor's
wavefunctions, kinetic energies, and field-free evolution of orientation and
alignment. We verify the analytic results by solving the corresponding
time-dependent Schr\"odinger equation numerically and extend the temporal range
of the interactions considered all the way to the adiabatic limit, $\Delta \tau
\gg \tau_r$, where general analytic solutions beyond the field-free case are no
longer available. The effects of the orienting and aligning interactions as
well as of their combination on the post-pulse populations of the rotational
states are visualized as functions of the orienting and aligning kick strengths
in terms of populations quilts. Quantum carpets that encapsulate the evolution
of the rotational wavepackets provide the space-time portraits of the resulting
dynamics. The population quilts and quantum carpets reveal that purely
orienting, purely aligning, or even-break combined interactions each exhibit a
sui generis dynamics. In the intermediate temporal regime, we find that the
wavepackets as functions of the orienting and aligning kick strengths show
resonances that correspond to diminished kinetic energies at particular values
of the pulse duration.

Quantum Physics