Related Experiment Video
Updated: May 25, 2026

Probing the Structure and Dynamics of Interfacial Water with Scanning Tunneling Microscopy and Spectroscopy
Published on: May 27, 2018
Quantum dynamics of proton migration in H2O dications: H2+ formation on ultrafast timescales
Manish Garg1, Ashwani K Tiwari, Deepak Mathur
1Indian Institute of Science Education and Research Kolkata, Mohanpur 741 252, India.
Abstract:
Irradiation of isolated water molecules by few-cycle pulses of intense infrared laser light can give rise to ultrafast rearrangement resulting in formation of the H(2) (+) ion. Such unimolecular reactions occur on the potential energy surface of the H(2)O(2+) dication that is accessed when peak laser intensities in the 10(15) W cm(-2) range and pulse durations as short as 9-10 fs are used; ion yields of ~1.5% relative to the H(2)O(+) ion are measured. We also study such reactions by means of time-dependent wavepacket dynamics on an ab initio potential energy surface of the dication and show that a proton, generated from O-H bond rupture, migrates towards the H-atom, and forms vibrationally excited H(2)(+) in a well-defined spatial zone.
Related Concept Videos
¹H NMR of Labile Protons: Deuterium (²H) Substitution
¹H NMR of Labile Protons: Temporal Resolution
The –OH proton in alcohols typically appears in the range of δ 2 to 5 ppm but can vary depending on the specific...
Proton (¹H) NMR: Chemical Shift
Absorption signals of all the protium nuclei in a...
¹H NMR of Conformationally Flexible Molecules: Temporal Resolution
Intermolecular Forces
The Quantum-Mechanical Model of an Atom

