On the feasibility of an ultrafast purely electronic reorganization in lithium hydride

Excitation of a coherent electronic wave packet, a linear combination of several electronic stationary states, is discussed with a computational example, the A and B low lying excited states of LiH. Such linear combination results in the electron executing a rotation-like motion in the xz plane with a period of 4 fs. The excitation needs to be shorter than this purely electronic reorganization time and yet the mean energy of the photon should be relatively low so that the A and B states are coherently accessed. These two requirements limit the wave form of the few cycle pump pulse. (c) 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.