Molecular dynamics of CO in few-cycle laser fields

Charge asymmetric dissociation of a CO+molecular-ion beam induced by strong laser fields

“…Although the conditions for producing CAD seem unfavorable, it has been observed as weak dissociation channels for many molecules ionized by weak and strong fields [9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20]. Mulliken [21] proposed that CAD states can be reached from CSD states by means of a charge transfer transition, i.e., A + + B + → A 2+ + B [22,23].…”

“…CAD has been observed in the strong-field regime for a large range of pulse durations (6 fs -10 ps) [13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20]. The CSD channel is always dominant, especially with longer laser pulses at ∼800-nm wavelengths, i.e., pulses long enough to reach the critical internuclear distance where enhanced ionization occurs.…”

“…The CSD channel is always dominant, especially with longer laser pulses at ∼800-nm wavelengths, i.e., pulses long enough to reach the critical internuclear distance where enhanced ionization occurs. CAD channels, such as the (2,0) channels for O 2 and N 2 [13] and for CO [14], are more visible at shorter pulse widths (30 and 6 fs, respectively), but a systematic study has yet to be performed. That leaves the question: What happens to the likelihood of the CAD channel with decreasing pulse duration, exactly the question we are addressing in this paper.…”

Fragmentation ofCD+induced by intense ultrashort laser pulses

“…The charges of a multiply charged molecular ion can either be shared evenly amongst the fragments, as is the case for charge-symmetric dissociation (CSD), or unequally in a process termed charge-asymmetric dissociation (CAD) [32,33]. The occurrence of CAD has been experimentally confirmed and explored in great detail [32][33][34][35][36][37][38][39][40][41]. However, the mechanism by which CAD states are initially populated are far from understood.…”

“…These states lie substantially higher in energy than the CSD states, and a dispute remains as to whether or not these states are populated via a charge transfer transition from the corresponding CSD states. Additional work on CAD has reported a strong dependence on the duration of the laser pulse driving this less-likely fragmentation channel [34,38,42].…”