Title: Laser control over the ultrafast Coulomb explosion of $N_2{}^{2+}$ after Auger decay: A quantum-dynamics investigation

Abstract

By theoretical calculation, we show the possibility to control and partially suppress the Coulomb explosion of ${\mathrm{N}}_2$ molecules after core-level photoionization by an x-ray laser and subsequent Auger decay. This is achieved by means of a femtosecond infrared laser pulse interacting with the ${\mathrm{N}}_2{}^{2+}$ dication produced by the x-ray pulse. Suppression of molecular fragmentation requires few-femtosecond IR pulses interacting with the system either during or shortly after the arrival of the x-ray pulse. The IR pulse suppresses fragmentation mostly by optically coupling the electronic routes to ultrafast molecular dissociation with electronic channels able to support long-lived vibrational resonances. The effect is strongly dependent on the orientation of the molecule with respect to the polarization axis of the IR field. These calculations are motivated by x-ray pump–IR probe experiments performed at an x-ray free-electron laser [J. M. Glownia et al., Opt. Express 18, 17620 (2010)], where only enhancement of ${\mathrm{N}}_2{}^{2+}$ fragmentation as a function of the pump-probe delay time was reported. The opposite effect reported here becomes apparent when the various electronic channels are considered separately. In practice, this corresponds to a coincident measurement of the energy of the ejected Auger electron

Authors:

Hanna, Athiya Mahmud ^[1]; Vendrell, Oriol ^[2]; Ourmazd, Abbas ^[3]; Santra, Robin ^[4]

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+ Show Author Affiliations

1. Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron (DESY), Hamburg (Germany); Univ. of Hamburg (Germany)
2. Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron (DESY), Hamburg (Germany); Hamburg Centre for Ultrafast Imaging (Germany); Aarhus Univ. (Denmark)
3. Univ. of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, WI (United States)
4. Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron (DESY), Hamburg (Germany); Univ. of Hamburg (Germany); Hamburg Centre for Ultrafast Imaging (Germany)

Publication Date:

Mon Apr 24 00:00:00 EDT 2017

Research Org.:

Univ. of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, WI (United States)

Sponsoring Org.:

USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES)

OSTI Identifier:

1598189

Alternate Identifier(s):

OSTI ID: 1352965

Grant/Contract Number:  

SC0002164

Resource Type:

Accepted Manuscript

Journal Name:

Physical Review A

Additional Journal Information:

Journal Volume: 95; Journal Issue: 4; Journal ID: ISSN 2469-9926

Publisher:

American Physical Society (APS)

Country of Publication:

United States

Language:

English

Subject:

74 ATOMIC AND MOLECULAR PHYSICS