Nuclear interference processes in the dissociation of H2+ in short vuv laser fields

We use a L2-discretization technique for solving the time-dependent Schrödinger equation for H2+ interacting with a short vuv laser pulse, in the Born-Oppenheimer approximation. The calculations include the electronic three-dimensional and vibrational one-dimensional motions. In this approach, we use the prolate spheroidal coordinate system to describe the electronic functions and a basis of Laguerre and Legendre functions. The vibrational motion is treated by using a basis of Sturmian functions. We consider the problem of two-photon dissociation of H2+ with photons ranging from 0.32 to 0.4 a.u corresponding to wavelengths from 143 to 114 nm. The initial vibrational wave packet results from a vertical (Franck-Condon) transition from the H 2 ground state towards a superposition of vibrational states in the 1sσ g electronic state of H2+. The effects of various types of nuclear interference on the population of the dissociative channels 2sσ g and 3dσ g are discussed in detail. In addition, we show that for 0.32-a.u. photon energy, the interference effects in the 3dσ g channel whose existence has been demonstrated previously can be observed in the total kinetic energy release spectrum. © 2012 American Physical Society.