Dissociation in strong field: a quantum analysis of the relation between angular momentum and angular distribution of fragments

TL;DR

This paper presents an ab initio quantum simulation of strong-field photodissociation in diatomic molecules, analyzing how laser intensity affects fragment angular distribution and dissociation dynamics.

Contribution

It introduces a detailed quantum model including electronic transitions, laser pulse effects, and thermal initial conditions for simulating molecular dissociation.

Findings

Higher laser intensities lead to more peaked angular distributions.

The kinetic energy release is marginally affected by field intensity.

The simulation aligns with recent experimental observations.

Abstract

An ab initio simulation of strong-field photodissociation of diatomic molecules was developed, inspired by recent dissociation experiments of F2-. The transition between electronic states was modeled, including the laser pulse and transition dipole, and the angle between them. The initial conditions of the system were set to be thermal and to include different rovibrational states. Carefully designed absorbing boundary conditions were applied to describe the boundary conditions of the experiment. We studied the influence of field intensity on the direction of the outcoming fragments and laboratory-fixed axis, defined by the field polarization. At high intensities, the angular distribution became more peaked with a marginal influence on kinetic energy release.