Direct theoretical evidence of nuclear motion in H+2 by means of high harmonic generation

Abstract

The numerical solution of the time-dependent Schrödinger equation for vibrating hydrogen molecular ions in many-cycle laser pulses shows that high-order harmonic generation is sensitive to laser-induced molecular vibrations. In particular, the odd harmonic lines in the emitted spectra are surrounded by additional regular peaks whose spacing is given by the vibrational frequency of the nuclei motion. Analytical theory relates these satellite peaks to the molecular vibrations in terms of an approximated effective potentials. These results are not affected by the dimensionality of the system.