Bifurcations as dissociation mechanism in bichromatically driven diatomic molecules

TL;DR

This paper investigates how bifurcations of short periodic orbits influence the dissociation of diatomic molecules under bichromatic laser fields, highlighting the role of orbit stability in predicting dissociation probabilities.

Contribution

It introduces a method linking periodic orbit bifurcations to molecular dissociation, providing a simplified yet accurate model for complex laser-driven dynamics.

Findings

Qualitative dissociation features are captured by short periodic orbits.

Bifurcations of these orbits significantly affect dissociation probabilities.

Model predictions align well with direct numerical simulations.

Abstract

We discuss the influence of periodic orbits on the dissociation of a model diatomic molecule driven by a strong bichromatic laser fields. Through the stability of periodic orbits we analyze the dissociation probability when parameters like the two amplitudes and the phase lag between the laser fields, are varied. We find that qualitative features of dissociation can be reproduced by considering a small set of short periodic orbits. The good agreement with direct simulations demonstrates the importance of bifurcations of short periodic orbits in the dissociation dynamics of diatomic molecules.