VUV excitation of a vibrational wavepacket in D2 measured through strong-field dissociative ionisation

Femtosecond vacuum ultraviolet pulses from a monochromated high harmonic generation source excite vibrational wavepackets in the B1Σ+g state of D2. The wavepacket motion is measured through strong field ionisation in to bound and dissociative ion states yielding D+2 and D+ products. The time dependence of the D+2 and D+ ion signals show significant differences due to the different ionisation rates into the bound and dissociative curves, providing a sensitive fingerprint of the quantum nuclear wavepacket. The experiments are modelled with excitation and ionisation processes included explicitly, and shows a very good agreement with the experimental observations. The experiment demonstrates the level of detail attainable when studying ultrafast quantum nuclear dynamics using high harmonic sources.