The lower C2v potential energy surfaces of the doublet states of H2O+: A computational study

Ionization induced dynamic alignment of water

Two-body dissociation resulting from strong-field double ionization of water is investigated. Two distinct features are seen in the alignment of the fragment momenta with respect to the laser polarization. One feature shows alignment of the H-OH axis with the laser polarization, while the other indicates polarization alignment normal to the H-OH axis. By analyzing kinematic differences between the OH⁺/D⁺ and OD⁺/H⁺ channels of HOD, these two alignment features are shown to result from dissociation from different states in the dication. Only dissociation from one of these states has an alignment dependence consistent with predictions of sequential strong-field tunneling ionization models. The alignment dependence of dissociation from the other state can only be explained by dynamic alignment launched by the unbending of the molecule during ionization.

Geometric dependence of strong field enhanced ionization in D2O

We have studied strong-field enhanced dissociative ionization of D₂O in 40 fs, 800 nm laser pulses with focused intensities of <1-3 × 10¹⁵W/cm² by resolving the charged fragment momenta with respect to the laser polarization. We that observe dication dissociation into OD⁺/D⁺ dominates when the polarization is out of the plane of the molecule, whereas trication dissociation into O⁺/D⁺/D⁺ is strongly dominant when the polarization is aligned along the D-D axis. Dication dissociation into O/D⁺/D⁺ and O⁺/D₂⁺ is not seen nor is there any significant fragmentation into multiple ions when the laser is polarized along the C_2v symmetry axis of the molecule. Even below the saturation intensity for OD⁺/D⁺, the O⁺/D⁺/D⁺ channel has higher yield. By analyzing how the laser field is oriented within the molecular frame for both channels, we show that enhanced ionization is driving the triply charged three body breakup but is not active for the doubly charged two body breakup. We conclude that laser-induced distortion of the molecular potential suppresses multiple ionization along the C_2v axis but enhances ionization along the D-D direction.

Dynamics of the O + H2+ → OH+ + H, OH + H+ proton and hydrogen atom transfer reactions on the two lowest potential energy surfaces

The dynamics of the title reaction was studied using mainly the quasiclassical trajectory (QCT) method on the ground 1²A'' (OH⁺ channel) and first excited 1²A' (OH channel) potential energy surfaces (PESs) employing ab initio analytical representations of the PESs developed by us. Both PESs correspond to exoergic reactions, are barrierless and present a deep minimum along the minimum energy path (MEP). Some extra calculations (cross sections) were also performed with the time dependent quantum real wave packet method at the centrifugal sudden level (RWP-CS method). A broad set of properties as a function of collision energy (E_col ≤ 0.5 eV) was considered using the QCT method: cross sections, average fractions of energy, product rovibrational distributions, two- and three-vector properties, and the microscopic mechanisms analyzing their influence on the dynamics. The proton transfer channel dominates the reactivity of the system and significant differences between the two reaction channels are found for the vibrational distributions and microscopic mechanisms. The results were interpreted according to the properties of the ground and excited PESs. Moreover, the QCT and RWP-CS cross sections are in rather good agreement for both reaction channels. We hope that this study will encourage the experimentalists to investigate the dynamics of this interesting but scarcely studied system, whose two lowest PESs include the ground and first excited electronic states of the H₂O⁺ cation.

A simplified ab initio treatment of diradicaloid structures produced from stretching and breaking chemical bonds

With a proper choice of active spaces, the single root perturbation theory employing improved virtual orbitals can flawlessly describe the ground, excited, ionized, and dissociated states having varying degrees of degeneracy at the expense of low computational cost.