Irina Bocharova

Laser Coulomb Explosion Imaging of Molecular Dynamics Irina Bocharova

This book is dedicated to an experimental work on the molecular dynamics following the interaction with laser field. This research project was carried out using high intensity pulsed lasers with near-IR central wavelength. Cold target recoil ion momentum spectroscopy technique - also known as "Reaction Microscope" - and pump-probe approach were used to initiate a dynamics in some diatomic and triatomic molecules (deuterium, hydrogen, nitrogen, oxygen, carbon monoxide and dioxide) with a laser pulse and interrogate it with another pulse. Coulomb explosion imaging and coincident measurement techniques were used to map the rotational and vibrational dynamics of a nuclear wave packet on electronic states of a molecule or ion. To perform time-resolved studies of molecular geometry evolution an interferometer for scanning of the delay between the pump and probe was employed. Laser pulses of a few femtoseconds long were used to be able to trace and resolve the dynamics of the fastest and lightest molecules like hydrogen and deuterium.