Isotopic Pulse Length Scaling of H₂⁺ Dissociation in an Intense Laser Field

Jianjun Hua, B.D. Esry
James R. Macdonald Laboratory, Department of Physics, Kansas State University, Manhattan, KS, USA

We will show that scaling the length of an intense, short laser pulse by the mass ratio of H₂⁺ and D₂⁺ produces remarkably similar KER spectra --- both in shape and in magnitude. D₂⁺, and heavier molecules in general, have long been used experimentally since they move more slowly and thus produce effectively shorter pulses. We demonstrate, however, that this intuitive result actually leads to nearly quantitative agreement for H₂⁺ and D₂⁺ spectra for pulse lengths of τ and sqrt(2)τ, respectively. As the pulse length grows, the resemblence decreases since the differences in the vibrational structure begin to play an increasingly important role. The averaging necessary to compare with experiment, including intensity averaging and convolution with experimental resolution, help to widen the window of pulse lengths where this simple mass scaling applies.

This work was supported by the Chemical Sciences, Geosciences and Biosciences Division, Office of Basic Energy Sciences, Office of Science, U.S. Department of Energy, and by the National Science Foundation.

Presented at DAMOP, May 2008, in State College, PA.

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