Sub-10-fs control of dissociation pathways in the hydrogen molecular ion with a few-pulse attosecond pulse train

• Published in: Nature communications Vol. 7; no. 1; p. 12835
• Main Authors: Nabekawa, Yasuo, Furukawa, Yusuke, Okino, Tomoya, Amani Eilanlou, A, Takahashi, Eiji J., Yamanouchi, Kaoru, Midorikawa, Katsumi
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: London Nature Publishing Group UK 20.09.2016; Nature Publishing Group; Nature Portfolio
• Subjects: 140/125; 639/766/36/1121; 639/766/36/2796; 639/766/400/3923; Chemical reactions; Energy; Humanities and Social Sciences; Hydrogen; multidisciplinary; Photonics; Science; Science (multidisciplinary); Japan
• ISSN: 2041-1723; 2041-1723
• DOI: 10.1038/ncomms12835

The control of the electronic states of a hydrogen molecular ion by photoexcitation is considerably difficult because it requires multiple sub-10 fs light pulses in the extreme ultraviolet (XUV) wavelength region with a sufficiently high intensity. Here, we demonstrate the control of the dissociation pathway originating from the 2 pσ u electronic state against that originating from the 2 pπ u electronic state in a hydrogen molecular ion by using a pair of attosecond pulse trains in the XUV wavelength region with a train-envelope duration of ∼4 fs. The switching time from the peak to the valley in the oscillation caused by the vibrational wavepacket motion in the 1 sσ g ground electronic state is only 8 fs. This result can be classified as the fastest control, to the best of our knowledge, of a molecular reaction in the simplest molecule on the basis of the XUV-pump and XUV-probe scheme. Attosecond laser pulses allow to explore the ultrafast atomic or molecular processes occurring in chemical reactions. Here the authors utilize a sequence of two XUV pump-probe pulses to control the dissociation dynamics of the hydrogen molecular ion.