Abstract

The dissociation and ionization mechanisms of molecules and molecular ions in a high intensity non-perturbative optical radiation field has attracted much interest experimentally as well as theoretically ([1,2] and refs, cited there). Especially investigations on molecular hydrogen have revealed many new molecule specific high field phenomena originating in the coupled electronic and nuclear degrees of freedom. Zaviyev et al. and Yang et al. found mechanisms like bond-softening dissociation, above threshold dissociation, or multiphoton dissociation to be active in the hydrogen molecular ion [3,4,5]. Also an indication of light-induced vibrational structure in H₂⁺ and D₂⁺ was detected [6]. At the high intensities reached in a focused laser beam finally the molecular ion may become ionized resulting in Coulomb explosion of the remaining bare nuclei. Hints pointing to this mechanism to be active have been found in H⁺ and D⁺ kinetic energy distributions [2,6].

© 1997 Optical Society of America