Imaging of rotational wave-function in photodissociation of rovibrationally excited HCl molecules

Rotational dynamics and transitions between Λ-type doubling of NO induced by an intense two-color laser field

We numerically investigate the rotational dynamics of NO in the electronic ground X²Π state induced by an intense two-color laser field (10 TW/cm²) as a function of pulse duration (0.3-25 ps). In the short pulse duration of less than 12 ps, rotational Raman excitation is effectively induced and results in molecular orientation. On the contrary, when the pulse duration is longer than 15 ps, the rotational excitation is suppressed. In addition to the rotational excitation, we find that transitions between Λ-type doubling are induced. Significantly, the maximum coherent wave packet between Λ-type doubling in J = 0.5 is generated using the pulse duration of 19.8 ps. The wave packet changes to the eigenstates of Λ = +1 or -1 alternatively, where Λ is the projection of the electronic orbital angular momentum on the N-O axis, which is regarded as the unidirectional rotation of an unpaired 2π electron around the N-O axis in a space-fixed frame as well as in a molecule-fixed frame. The experimental method to observe the alternation of the rotational direction of the electron around the N-O axis is proposed.

The Effect of Nuclear-Quadrupole Coupling in the Laser-Induced Alignment of Molecules

We present a theoretical study of the time-dependent laser alignment of molecules taking into account the hyperfine coupling due to nuclear-quadrupole interactions. The coupling of nuclear spins to the overall angular momentum of molecules significantly influences their rotational dynamics. Here, we systematically analyze the impact of the nuclear-quadrupole coupling on the rotational dynamics of the linear and the asymmetric-top diiodobenzene molecule induced by external laser fields. We explore different regimes of pulse shapes and laser-pulse intensities and detail under which conditions the quadrupole coupling cannot be neglected in the description of the laser alignment of molecules.

Long time scale dynamics of vibrationally excited (HBr)n clusters

We investigated the photodissociation dynamics of vibrationally excited HBr molecules and clusters. The species were generated in a molecular beam and excited with an IR laser to a v = 1 vibrational state. A subsequent ultraviolet (UV)-pulse with 243 nm radiation photolysed the molecules to yield H-fragments, which were resonantly ionized by the same UV-pulse (2 + 1 REMPI) and detected in a velocity map imaging (VMI) experiment. We performed action spectroscopy to distinguish between two expansion regimes: (i) expansion leading to isolated HBr molecules and (ii) generation of large (HBr)_n clusters. Photodissociation of isolated HBr ( v = 1) molecules in particular J ro-vibrational states yielded faster H-fragments (by approximately 0.3 eV) with respect to the photodissociation of the ground state HBr ( v = 0). On the contrary, the IR excitation of molecules in (HBr) _n clusters enhanced the yield of the H-fragments UV-photodissociated from the ground-state HBr ( v = 0) molecules. Our findings show that these molecules are photodissociated within clusters, and they are not free molecules evaporated from clusters after the IR excitation. Nanosecond IR-UV pump-probe experiments show that the IR-excitation enhances the H-fragment UV-photodissociation yield up to ∼100 ns after the IR excitation. After these long IR-UV delays, excitation of HBr molecules in clusters does not originate from the IR-excitation but from the UV-photodissociation and subsequent caging of HBr molecules in v > 0 states. We show that even after ∼100 ns the IR-excited larger (HBr) _n clusters do not decay to individual molecules, and the excitation is still present in some form within these clusters enhancing their UV-photodissociation.

Hyperfine-Structure-Induced Depolarization of Impulsively Aligned I_{2} Molecules

A moderately intense 450 fs laser pulse is used to create rotational wave packets in gas phase I_{2} molecules. The ensuing time-dependent alignment, measured by Coulomb explosion imaging with a delayed probe pulse, exhibits the characteristic revival structures expected for rotational wave packets but also a complex nonperiodic substructure and decreasing mean alignment not observed before. A quantum mechanical model attributes the phenomena to coupling between the rotational angular momenta and the nuclear spins through the electric quadrupole interaction. The calculated alignment trace agrees very well with the experimental results.

Visualizing rotational wave functions of electronically excited nitric oxide molecules by using an ion imaging technique

Here we report the dissociative ionization imaging of electronically excited nitric oxide (NO) molecules to visualize rotational wave functions in the electronic excited state (A ²Σ⁺). The NO molecules were excited to a single rotational energy eigenstate in the first electronic excited state by a resonant nanosecond ultraviolet pulse. The molecules were then irradiated by a strong, circularly polarized femtosecond imaging pulse. Spatial distribution of the ejected N⁺ and O⁺ fragment ions from the dissociative NO²⁺ was recorded as a direct measure of the molecular axis distribution using a high-resolution slice ion imaging apparatus. The circularly polarized probe pulse realizes the isotropic ionization and thus undistorted shapes of the functions can be visualized. Due to the higher ionization efficiency of the excited molecules relative to the ground state ones, signals from the excited NO were enhanced. We can, therefore, extract shapes of the square of rotational wave functions in the electronic excited state although the unexcited ground state molecules are the majority in an ensemble. The observed images show s-function-like and p-function-like shapes depending on the excitation wavelengths. These shapes well reflect the rotational (angular momentum) character of the prepared states. The present approach directly leads to the evaluation method of the molecular axis alignment in photo-excited ensembles, and it could also lead to a visualization method for excited state molecular dynamics.