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  • Letter
  • Open Access

Direct observation of entangled electronic-nuclear wave packets

Gönenç Moğol, Brian Kaufman, and Thomas Weinacht*

Chuan Cheng

Itzik Ben-Itzhak

  • Department of Physics and Astronomy, Stony Brook University, Stony Brook New York 11794-3800, USA

  • Stanford PULSE Institute, SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, Menlo Park, California 94025, USA and Department of Physics and Astronomy, Stony Brook University, Stony Brook New York 11794-3800, USA

  • James R. Mcdonald Laboratory, Kansas State University, Manhattan Kansas 66506-2604, USA

  • *Author to whom correspondence should be addressed: thomas.weinacht@stonybrook.edu
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Phys. Rev. Research 6, L022047 – Published 28 May, 2024

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevResearch.6.L022047

Abstract

We present momentum resolved covariance measurements of entangled electronic-nuclear wave packets created and probed with octave spanning phaselocked ultrafast pulses. We launch vibrational wave packets on multiple electronic states via multiphoton absorption, and probe these wave packets via strong field double ionization using a second phaselocked pulse. Momentum resolved covariance mapping of the fragment ions highlights the nuclear motion, while measurements of the yield as a function of the relative phase between pump and probe pulses highlight the electronic coherence. The combined measurements allow us to directly visualize the entanglement between the electronic and nuclear degrees of freedom and follow the evolution of the complete wavefunction.

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Phys. Rev. Research 6, L022047– Published 28 May, 2024
  • Received 19 November 2023
  • Accepted 23 April 2024
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Published by the American Physical Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. Further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the published article's title, journal citation, and DOI.

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