High-harmonic homodyne detection of the ultrafast dissociation of Br2 molecules.
We report the time-resolved observation of the photodissociation of Br2 using high-harmonic generation (HHG) as a probe. The simultaneous measurement of the high-harmonic and ion yields shows that high harmonics generated by the electronically excited state interfere with harmonics generated by the ground state. The resulting homodyne effect provides a high sensitivity to the excited state dynamics. We present a simple theoretical model that accounts for the main observations. Our experiment paves the way towards the dynamic imaging of molecules using HHG.
Wörner
H J
HJ
Joint Laboratory for Attosecond Science, National Research Council of Canada and University of Ottawa, 100 Sussex Drive, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada K1A 0R6.
Bertrand
J B
JB
Corkum
P B
PB
Villeneuve
D M
DM