Characterization of Molecular Breakup by Very Intense Femtosecond XUV Laser Pulses

Abstract

We study the breakup of ${\text{H}}_2^{+}$ exposed to super-intense, femtosecond laser pulses with frequencies greater than that corresponding to the ionization potential. By solving the time-dependent Schrödinger equation in an extensive field parameter range, it is revealed that highly nonresonant dissociation channels can dominate over ionization. By considering field-dressed Born-Oppenheimer potential energy curves in the reference frame following a free electron in the field, we propose a simple physical model that characterizes this dissociation mechanism. The model is used to predict control of vibrational excitation, magnitude of the dissociation yields, and nuclear kinetic energy release spectra. Finally, the joint energy spectrum for the ionization process illustrates the energy sharing between the electron and the nuclei and the correlation between ionization and dissociation processes.

6 pages, 5 figures

References in corpus (6)

• Breakdown of the Dipole Approximation in Strong-Field Ionization
• Dynamic interference of photoelectrons produced by high-frequency laser pulses
• Multiple Ionization Bursts in Laser-Driven Hydrogen Molecular Ion
• The tunneling model of laser-induced ionization and its failure at low frequencies
• Dissociation and dissociative ionization of H2+ using the time-dependent surface flux method
• Dissociative ionization of H2+ using intense femtosecond XUV laser pulses

Cited by in corpus (1)

• Inter- and intracycle interference effects in strong-field dissociative ionization