Mapping of coherent and decohering nuclear wave-packet dynamics in D2+ with ultrashort laser pulses -: art. no. 063408

Fast ionization of D-2 leads to the coherent population of many vibrational states of D-2(+). Usually, only the squared absolute values of the vibrational state amplitudes, known as Franck-Condon factors, are observed since insufficient experimental time resolution averages out all coherence effects. We propose a Coulomb explosion imaging method to visualize the coherent motion of bound wave packets using ultrashort (5 fs), intense pump-probe laser pulses. With this type of experiment decoherence times in the fs to ps range may become directly observable and provide essential information for coherent control.