Molecular Orbital Tomography using Short Laser Pulses

Abstract

Recently, a method to image molecular electronic wave functions using high harmonic generation (HHG) was introduced by Itatani \textit{et al.\} [Nature {\textbf{432}}, 876 (2004)]. We show that, while the tomographic reconstruction of general orbitals with arbitrary symmetry cannot be performed with long laser pulses, this becomes possible when extremely short pulses are used. An alternative reconstruction equation based on momentum matrix elements, rather than on dipole matrix elements, is proposed. We present simulations of the procedure for 2D model systems based on numerical solutions of the time-dependent Schrödinger equation, and present results from further post-processing of the reconstructed orbitals.

5 pages, 2 figures

References in corpus (4)

• Theoretical analysis of dynamic chemical imaging with lasers using high-order harmonic generation
• Theory of high-order harmonic generation from molecules by intense laser pulses
• Retrieval of interatomic separations of molecules from laser-induced high-order harmonic spectra
• Control of recollision wave packets for molecular orbital tomography using short laser pulses