Ultrafast delocalization of protons in methanol and allene in intense laser fields

Abstract

Ultrafast hydrogen migration in methanol and allene induced by intense laser fields was investigated by Coulomb explosion coincidence momentum imaging (CMI). For methanol, it was shown that there are two distinctively different stages in the hydrogenmigration processes in singly charged methanol, i.e., ultrafast hydrogen migration occurring within the intense laser field, and slower post-laser pulse hydrogen migration, showing quantum mechanical nature of light protons. For allene, the distribution of a proton covering the wide spatial area in an allene molecule was visualized by the momentum correlation maps constructed from the observed momentum vectors of fragment ions. © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2012.