Few-cycle laser pulses to obtain spatial separation of OHF- dissociation products

Nadia Elghobashi-Meinhardt*, Leticia González, Ingo Barth, Tamar Seideman

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

8 Scopus citations

Abstract

In a two-part theoretical study, field-free orientation of OHF- is achieved by means of moderately intense half-cycle, infrared laser pulses. In the first step, a short linearly polarized pulse excites a superposition of rigid rotor rotational eigenstates via interaction with the permanent dipole moment of OHF-. After the field has been switched off, pronounced molecular orientation is observed for several picoseconds. In the second step, femtosecond few-cycle laser pulses are applied to the oriented system to steer vibrational dynamics, modeled by anharmonic vibrational wave functions calculated on a potential energy surface obtained with unrestricted fourth order Møller-Plesset ab initio calculations. The result is selective bond breaking of OHF, followed by the spatial separation of dissociation products in the space-fixed frame. Due to revivals in the rotational wavepacket, product yields can be enhanced over long times.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Article number024310
JournalJournal of Chemical Physics
Volume130
Issue number2
DOIs
StatePublished - 2009

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • General Physics and Astronomy
  • Physical and Theoretical Chemistry

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