The study of NaI predissociation with pump-probe femtosecond laser pulses: The use of an ionizing probe pulse to obtain more detailed dynamic information

Abstract

We propose a variation of an experiment performed recently in Zewail's group. This uses a short laser pulse to excite NaI to a dissociating state and a probe pulse to ionize the excited molecule to either Na++I or INa+. We show that, because the ionization potential depends strongly on the Na-I distance, this scheme gives more detailed dynamic information than experiments using laser-induced fluorescence as a probe. © 1989.