Electronic "bubble" dynamics in solid argon

Abstract

We follow the ultrafast dynamics of the medium response to impulsive Rydberg state excitation of an NO molecule trapped in solid argon using a femtosecond fluorescence depletion pump-probe technique. Our results show that the cage expands by undergoing collective coherent recurrencies for over ∼3 ps, on its way to the fully relaxed electronic "bubble" conformation.