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Updated: Jul 19, 2026

Direct Imaging of Laser-driven Ultrafast Molecular Rotation
Published on: February 4, 2017
Formation of ground-state vibrational wave packets in intense ultrashort laser pulses
Erich Goll1, Günter Wunner, Alejandro Saenz
1Institut für Theoretische Physik, Universität Stuttgart, Pfaffenwaldring 57, 70550 Stuttgart, Germany.
Abstract:
The formation of coherent vibrational wave packets in the electronic ground state of neutral molecules in intense ultrashort laser pulses and their subsequent detection by means of recently developed pump-probe experiments are discussed. The wave packet formation is due to the pronounced dependence of the strong-field ionization rate on the internuclear distance. This leads to a deformation of the initial wave function due to an internuclear-distance dependent depletion. The phenomenon is demonstrated with a time-dependent wave packet study for molecular hydrogen.
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