Abstract

The durations of high-power ultrashort pulses are now shorter than the dissociation time of even highly charged molecular ions, especially if the component ions are massive. Thus a new molecular species, inertially confined molecular ions, is available for study by optical means. From a long-term perspective, two issues seem particularly important: (1) the spectroscopy of this new class of diatomic molecule and (2) their nonlinear response.

© 1993 Optical Society of America