Dissociation Dynamics of Molecules Subject to Intense Ultrashort Laser Pulses

Abstract

The probing time for sampling the internal dynamics of a molecular system should be comparable to the time-scale associated with the internal motion in a molecule, which ranges from femtoseconds (fs) to picoseconds (ps). Recent development in laser technology make it possible to probe a molecular system with intense and ultrashort laser pulses with large bandwidth. In the presence of intense ( 10-100 TW/cm2) and ultrashort ( 25 fs) laser field a molecule may go through ionization and eventually dissociates into various ionic and neutral fragments. Several transient electronic processes plays an key role in the molecular dissociation dynamics in the presence of intense, ultrashort laser field. One of the possible ways to understand the dissociation dynamics of the molecular system through various complex electronic processes is by capturing the velocity spread and the angular distribution of the ionic fragments with respect to the polarization axis of the laser field. The main objective of this work is to understand the influence of the electronic processes in the dissociation dynamics. Two different aspects of the electronic processes have been addressed here by using a Velocity Map Imaging (VMI) technique along with detailed quantum chemistry calculations.