Measurement of Ultrafast Vibrational Coherences in Polyatomic Radical Cations with Strong-Field Adiabatic Ionization

We present a pump-probe method for preparing vibrational coherences in polyatomic radical cations and probing their ultrafast dynamics. By shifting the wavelength of the strong-field ionizing pump pulse from the commonly used 800 nm into the near-infrared (1200-1600 nm), the contribution of adiabatic electron tunneling to the ionization process increases relative to multiphoton absorption. Adiabatic ionization results in predominant population of the ground electronic state of the ion upon electron removal, which effectively prepares a coherent vibrational state ("wave packet") amenable to subsequent excitation. In our experiments, the coherent vibrational dynamics are probed with a weak-field 800 nm pulse and the time-dependent yields of dissociation products measured in a time-of-flight mass spectrometer. We present the measurements on the molecule dimethyl methylphosphonate (DMMP) to illustrate how using 1500 nm pulses for excitation enhances the amplitude of coherent oscillations in ion yields by a factor of 10 as compared to 800 nm pulses. This protocol may be implemented in existing pump-probe setups through the incorporation of an optical parametric amplifier (OPA) for wavelength conversion.