Single-laser-induced quantum interference in photofragmentation reaction of D⁺₂

ABSTRACT

We theoretically study quantum interference phenomena in the photofragmentation reaction of breaking up the diatomic molecular ion D⁺ ₂ into an atom D and an ionic D⁺ by a single ultrashort laser pulse. The numerical results show that the occurrence of quantum interference in kinetic energy release spectra is sensitive to the angle between the molecular axis and the laser field polarisation direction. Such sensitivity is shown to be dependent on the initial vibrational quantum state of the system and the pulse intensity. The underlying mechanism for the single-pulse-induced quantum interference is analysed by using a light-induced potential and light-induced conical intersection concept.

KEYWORDS:

• Light-induced conical intersections
• quantum interference
• angular distributions of photofragments

Acknowledgments

We dedicate this paper to Professor André D Bandrauk on the occasion of his 75th birthday. Kai-Jun Yuan acknowledges the support and hospitality provided by UNSW Canberra during his visit. Chuan-Cun Shu acknowledges the financial support by the Vice-Chancellor's Postdoctoral Research Fellowship of The University of New South Wales, Australia. Daoyi Dong acknowledges partial support by the Australian Research Council under Grant No. DP130101658. We also thank RQCHP and Compute Canada for access to massive computer clusters.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

Australian Research Council [grant number DP130101658].