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Vibrational and Rotational Excitations of Diatomic Molecules by Chirped Laser Pulses
Author(s) -
Martin Rebekah,
Kim JungHoon,
Liu WingKi,
Yuan JianMin
Publication year - 2002
Publication title -
journal of the chinese chemical society
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.329
H-Index - 45
eISSN - 2192-6549
pISSN - 0009-4536
DOI - 10.1002/jccs.200200109
Subject(s) - diatomic molecule , chemistry , excitation , laser , dissociation (chemistry) , atomic physics , ionization , molecule , physics , optics , quantum mechanics , ion , organic chemistry
After a review of the “bucket dynamics” which classically accounts for the efficiency of chirped laser pulse excitation of the vibrations of a diatomic molecule, quantum mechanical results for the dissociation of diatomic molecules by a chirped pulse followed by a second laser pulse are presented. It is demonstrated that by using a second fixed‐frequency laser, dissociation without ionization is possible which each laser by itself would not suffice to dissociate the molecules. By using a second chirped laser pulse, additional excitation and dissociation of the molecule is observed. Similar to vibrational excitation, rotational excitation of a diatomic molecule can be accomplished by using a circularly polarized chirped laser pulse. Results of our quantum mechanical calculations show that coherent control of the rotational motion of a diatomic molecule is achievable.