Attosecond chirp-encoded dynamics of light nuclei

• Published in: Journal of physics. B, Atomic, molecular, and optical physics Vol. 42; no. 13; pp. 134002 - 134002 (8)
• Main Authors: Haessler, S, Boutu, W, Stankiewicz, M, Frasinski, L J, Weber, S, Caillat, J, Taïeb, R, Maquet, A, Breger, P, Monchicourt, P, Carré, B, Salières, P
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: IOP Publishing 14.07.2009
• ISSN: 0953-4075; 1361-6455
• DOI: 10.1088/0953-4075/42/13/134002

We study the spectral phase of high-order harmonic emission as an observable for probing ultrafast nuclear dynamics after the ionization of a molecule. Using a strong-field approximation theory that includes nuclear dynamics, we relate the harmonic phase to the phase of the overlap integral of the nuclear wavefunctions of the initial neutral molecule and the molecular ion after an attosecond probe delay. We determine experimentally the group delay of the high harmonic emission from D2 and H2 molecules, which allows us to verify the relation between harmonic frequency and the attosecond delay. The small difference in the harmonic phase between H2 and D2 calculated theoretically is consistent with our experimental results.