Selective control of HOD photodissociation using CW lasers.

Selective control of HOD photodissociation (H--O + D ← HOD → H + O--D) has been theoretically investigated using CW lasers with appropriate carrier frequency and |0, 0>, |0, 1> and |0, 2> with zero quantum of excitation in the O-H bond and zero, one and two quanta of excitation in the O--D bond as the initial states. Results indicate that the O--H bond in HOD can be selectively dissociated with a maximum flux of 87% in the H + O--D channel from the ground vibrational state |0, 0>. For the O--D bond dissociation, it requires two quanta of excitation (|0, 2>) in the O--D mode to obtain 83% flux in the H--O + D channel. Use of a two colour laser set-up in conjunction with the field optimized initial state (FOIST) scheme to obtain an optimal linear combination of |0, 0> and |0, 1> vibrational states as the initial state provides an additional 7% improvement to flux in the H--O + D channel as compared to that from the pure |0, 1> state. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]