title: Steering the nuclear motion in singly ionized argon dimers with mutually detuned laser pulses.
abstract: We demonstrate that the vibrational nuclear motion of singly ionized argon dimers can be controlled with two ultrashort laser pulses of different wavelengths. In particular, we observe a striking "gap" in the pump-probe-delay-dependent kinetic-energy release spectrum only if the probe-pulse wavelength exceeds the pump-pulse wavelength. This "frustrated dissociation effect" is reproduced by our two-state quantum mechanical model, validating its interpretation as a pump-pulse-initiated population transfer between dipole-coupled Born-Oppenheimer electronic states of the dissociating Ar(2)(+) molecular ion. Our numerical results also reproduce the measured collapse and fractional revival of the oscillating Ar(2)(+) nuclear wave packet, and, for single-pulse dissociation, the decrease of the kinetic-energy release with increasing laser wavelength.
authors: Institut für Kernphysik, Goethe-Universität, Frankfurt, Germany.
authors: J
authors: J
authors: Wu
authors: M
authors: M
authors: Magrakvelidze
authors: A
authors: A
authors: Vredenborg
authors: L Ph H
authors: LP
authors: Schmidt
authors: T
authors: T
authors: Jahnke
authors: A
authors: A
authors: Czasch
authors: R
authors: R
authors: Dörner
authors: U
authors: U
authors: Thumm