Reconstructing Molecular-Ion Quantum States with Two-Color Strong-Field Scattering
Abstract
Strong-field ionization of molecules can prepare coherent superpositions of ionic states whose amplitudes and relative phases govern the ensuing ultrafast dynamics, but accessing this information experimentally remains a challenge. Here we introduce two-color strong-field scattering, in which a strong mid-infrared field ionizes the molecule and launches an electron, while a weak second harmonic field resonantly couples vibronic states of the parent ion during the electron's continuum excursion, thereby introducing structural changes on the sub-laser-cycle timescale. Scanning the relative phase between the two colors controls the ionic evolution and maps it onto phase-dependent sub-angstrom bond-length changes retrieved from the rescattering signal. Using the example of N2, we apply the two-color setup to probe the coherence between different ionization channels and to reconstruct the initial ionic superposition. Our results establish two-color strong-field scattering as a powerful structural approach to characterize the complex amplitudes of ion quantum wavepackets.
Related
- Hadamard random forest for reconstructing real valued pure quantum states
- A Mesoscopic Ginzburg--Landau Model for Vibrational Strong Coupling Enhanced Rayleigh Scattering in Molecular Liquids
- Norm of resonance states in quantum scattering and electromagnetic systems
- Scattering, bound states, and resonances in the one-dimensional Dirac equation via supersymmetric quantum mechanics
- Non-Abelian quantum Hall states at strong Landau level mixing: finding anyons with first-principles AI
BibTeX
@misc{eissa2026reconstructing,
title = {{Reconstructing Molecular-Ion Quantum States with Two-Color Strong-Field Scattering}},
author = {Dina S. Eissa and Felipe Morales and Abraham Camacho Garibay and Vyacheslav Leshchenko and Cosmin I. Blaga and Misha Ivanov and Pierre Agostini and Maria Richter and Louis F. DiMauro},
howpublished = {arXiv},
year = {2026},
month = sep,
doi = {10.48550/arxiv.2609.35283},
eprint = {2609.35283},
archivePrefix = {arXiv},
url = {https://arxiv.org/abs/2609.35283},
}
RIS
TY - UNPB
TI - Reconstructing Molecular-Ion Quantum States with Two-Color Strong-Field Scattering
AU - Dina S. Eissa
AU - Felipe Morales
AU - Abraham Camacho Garibay
AU - Vyacheslav Leshchenko
AU - Cosmin I. Blaga
AU - Misha Ivanov
AU - Pierre Agostini
AU - Maria Richter
AU - Louis F. DiMauro
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/09/28
PB - arXiv
DO - 10.48550/arxiv.2609.35283
UR - https://arxiv.org/abs/2609.35283
AB - Strong-field ionization of molecules can prepare coherent superpositions of ionic states whose amplitudes and relative phases govern the ensuing ultrafast dynamics, but accessing this information experimentally remains a challenge. Here we introduce two-color strong-field scattering, in which a strong mid-infrared field ionizes the molecule and launches an electron, while a weak second harmonic field resonantly couples vibronic states of the parent ion during the electron's continuum excursion, thereby introducing structural changes on the sub-laser-cycle timescale. Scanning the relative phase between the two colors controls the ionic evolution and maps it onto phase-dependent sub-angstrom bond-length changes retrieved from the rescattering signal. Using the example of N_2, we apply the two-color setup to probe the coherence between different ionization channels and to reconstruct the initial ionic superposition. Our results establish two-color strong-field scattering as a powerful structural approach to characterize the complex amplitudes of ion quantum wavepackets.
ER -