Diatomic molecule in a strong infrared laser field: level-shifts and bond-length change due to laser-dressed Morse potential

Abstract

We present a general mathematical procedure to handle interactions described by a Morse potential in the presence of a strong harmonic excitation. We account for permanent and field-induced terms and their gradients in the dipole moment function, and we derive analytic formulae for the bond-length change and for the shifted energy eigenvalues of the vibrations, by using the Kramers-Henneberger frame. We apply these results to the important cases of H 2 and LiH, driven by a near-or mid-infrared laser in the 10 13 W/cm 2 intensity range.