Breaking the strong and weak bonds of OHF- using few-cycle IR plus UV laser pulses

Results of quantum dynamical simulations of the selective bond breaking of OHF- are presented. A few-cycle IR laser pulse is designed to excite a superposition of asymmetric vibrational eigenstates such that the resulting wavepacket is shifted from its equilibrium position. After a critical time delay, a resonant ultrashort UV pulse is applied that excites the wavepacket to a neutral, dissociative surface and selectively breaks the already extended bond. Thus the preferential products O+HF or OH+F can be obtained by applying the appropriate sequence of few-cycle IR + UV laser pulses, and branching ratios are optimized for both dissociation channels.