Dissociative ionization of H2+ using intense femtosecond XUV laser pulses

Abstract: The dissociative ionization of H2+ interacting with intense, femtosecond extreme-ultraviolet laser pulses is investigated theoretically. This is done by numerical propagation of the time-dependent Schr\"{o}dinger equation for a colinear one-dimensional model of H2+, with electronic and nuclear motion treated exactly within the limitations of the model. The joint-energy spectra (JES) are extracted for the fragmented electron and nuclei by means of the t-SURFF method. The dynamic interference effect, which was first observed in one-electron atomic systems, is in the present work observed for H2+, emerging as interference patterns in the JES. The photoelectron spectrum and the nuclear energy spectrum is obtained by integration of the JES. Without the JES, the photoelectron spectrum itself is shown to be inadequate for the observation of the dynamic interference effect. The resulting JES are analyzed in terms of two models. In one model the wave function is expanded in terms of the "essential" states of the system, consisting of the ground state and the continuum states. In the second model the photoelectron spectra from fixed nuclei calculations are used to reproduce the JES using simple reflection arguments. The range of validity of these models is discussed and it is shown that the continuum-continuum couplings and the consideration of the population of excited vibrational states are crucial for understanding the structures of the JES.