Molecular dissociation in strong laser fields takes place in the electronic scales (attosecond). It is great interest to control the molecular dissociation process using intense laser fields, which is very important in the dissociation dynamics of molecular excitation process and is also very important in the controlling chemical reaction channels.

Recently, researchers at Peking University, China, Professors Yunquan Liu, Chengyin Wu and Qihuang Gong, report that multiple dissociative channels of carbon monoxide (CO) molecule are selectively controlled using intense phase-stabilized few-cycle laser fields (4.2fs, 740nm, 6x10¹⁴W/cm²). The controllable emission direction of C²⁺from charge asymmetrical dissociation and ionization of CO dications is out of phase in a linear polarized laser field. They explain the interesting experimental findings with the competition of recollision excitation and recollision ionization in an electron recollision process. The work provides an insight into high degree controlling molecular multiple dissociative processes in the time scale of electronic motion. This work is published in Physical Review Letters 106,073004(2011).

This project is supported by the Natural Science Foundation of China and 973 program.