Metastable Triply Charged Diatomic Molecules Produced with Femtosecond Pulses

Abstract

We show that ultrashort pulse strong field multiphoton ionization efficiently produces metastable highly charged molecules such as metastable diatomic trications ${\mathrm{I}}_{2}^{3+}$, ${\mathrm{Br}}_{2}^{3+}$, and ${\mathrm{Cl}}_{2}^{3+}$. The efficiency of stable trication production decreases rapidly with increasing pulse duration. Weak pre- or post-pulse irradiation also prevents efficient production or survival of trications. We propose strong-field femtosecond Raman spectroscopy to determine trication vibrational frequencies.