J D Alexander et al 2009 J. Phys. B: At. Mol. Opt. Phys. 42 141004 doi:10.1088/0953-4075/42/14/141004
J D Alexander1, C R Calvert1, R B King1, O Kelly1, L Graham1, W A Bryan2, G R A J Nemeth2, W R Newell3, C A Froud4, I C E Turcu4, E Springate4, I D Williams1 and J B Greenwood1
Show affiliationsH+3 is the simplest triatomic molecule and plays an important role in laboratory and astrophysical plasmas. It is very stable both in terms of its electronic and nuclear degrees of freedom but is difficult to study in depth in the laboratory due to its ionic nature. In this communication, experimental results are presented for the strong field dissociation of the isotopic analogue D+3, using 30 fs, 800 nm laser pulses with intensities up to 1016 W cm−2. By employing a novel experimental set-up, ions were confined in an electrostatic ion trap so that dissociation of the molecule could be studied as it radiatively cools. It was determined that dissociation could only be observed for molecules in ro-vibrational states relatively close to the dissociation limit, while more tightly bound states demonstrated remarkable stability in even the strongest fields.
33.80.Gj Diffuse spectra; predissociation, photodissociation
98.58.Bz Atomic, molecular, chemical, and grain processes
42.65.Re Ultrafast processes; optical pulse generation and pulse compression
Issue 14 (28 July 2009)
Received 21 April 2009, in final form 22 May 2009
Published 24 June 2009
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