Journal of Chemical Physics, Vol.110, No.10, 4737-4749, 1999
Dynamical quenching of laser-induced dissociations of heteronuclear diatomic molecules in intense infrared fields
This article explores the influence of permanent dipole moments, i.e., of direct vibrational excitations, on the dynamical dissociation quenching (DDQ) effect, a mechanism for laser-induced vibrational trapping in the infrared (IR) spectral range which was recently demonstrated for the homonuclear H-2(+) ion, and was shown to result from a proper synchronization of the molecular motions with the oscillations of the laser electric field [see F. Chateauneuf, T. Nguyen-Dang, N. Ouellet, and O. Atabek, J. Chem. Phys. 108, 3974 (1998)]. To this end, the wave packet dynamics of the HD+ and, to a lesser extent, the HCl+ molecular ions are considered in an intense IR laser field of variable frequency. Variations in the absolute phase of the laser electric field, a form of variations in the initial conditions, reveal new signatures of the DDQ effect due to the presence of nonzero permanent dipole moments in these molecules. The added permanent dipole/field interaction terms induce a discrimination between parallel and antiparallel configurations of the aligned molecule with respect to the laser's instantaneous electric field. As a result, molecules that are prepared antiparallel to the field at peak intensity find their dissociation quenched most efficiently, while those that are prepared parallel to the field are strongly dissociative.