Observing electron localization in a dissociating H2+ molecule in real time

H. Xu (), Zhichao Li, Feng He (), X. Wang, A. Atia-Tul-Noor, D. Kielpinski, R. T. Sang and I. V. Litvinyuk ()
Additional contact information
H. Xu: Centre for Quantum Dynamics and Australian Attosecond Science Facility, Griffith University
Zhichao Li: Key Laboratory for Laser Plasmas (Ministry of Education) and School of Physics and Astronomy, Collaborative Innovation Center of IFSA (CICIFSA), Shanghai Jiao Tong University
Feng He: Key Laboratory for Laser Plasmas (Ministry of Education) and School of Physics and Astronomy, Collaborative Innovation Center of IFSA (CICIFSA), Shanghai Jiao Tong University
X. Wang: Centre for Quantum Dynamics and Australian Attosecond Science Facility, Griffith University
A. Atia-Tul-Noor: Centre for Quantum Dynamics and Australian Attosecond Science Facility, Griffith University
D. Kielpinski: Centre for Quantum Dynamics and Australian Attosecond Science Facility, Griffith University
R. T. Sang: Centre for Quantum Dynamics and Australian Attosecond Science Facility, Griffith University
I. V. Litvinyuk: Centre for Quantum Dynamics and Australian Attosecond Science Facility, Griffith University

Nature Communications, 2017, vol. 8, issue 1, 1-6

Abstract: Abstract Dissociation of diatomic molecules with odd number of electrons always causes the unpaired electron to localize on one of the two resulting atomic fragments. In the simplest diatomic molecule H2+ dissociation yields a hydrogen atom and a proton with the sole electron ending up on one of the two nuclei. That is equivalent to breaking of a chemical bond—the most fundamental chemical process. Here we observe such electron localization in real time by performing a pump–probe experiment. We demonstrate that in H2+ electron localization is complete in just 15 fs when the molecule’s internuclear distance reaches 8 atomic units. The measurement is supported by a theoretical simulation based on numerical solution of the time-dependent Schrödinger equation. This observation advances our understanding of detailed dynamics of molecular dissociation.

Date: 2017
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.nature.com/articles/ncomms15849 Abstract (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nat:natcom:v:8:y:2017:i:1:d:10.1038_ncomms15849

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.nature.com/ncomms/

DOI: 10.1038/ncomms15849

Access Statistics for this article

Nature Communications is currently edited by Nathalie Le Bot, Enda Bergin and Fiona Gillespie

More articles in Nature Communications from Nature
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().