Femtosecond laser-induced dynamic alignment in Coulomb explosion of CO: Roles of laser wavelength, intensity and pulse duration

Dependences of dynamic alignment of CO molecules induced by intense femtosecond laser fields on laser wavelength, intensity and pulse duration are investigated by numerical simulations. A counting approach and a fourth-order Runge-Kutta algorithm are used to calculate the angular distribution and the time evolution of molecules. A two-step Coulomb explosion model of diatomic molecules in intense laser fields is used to determine the instant that CO molecular dynamic alignment is over. Our calculating results show that the linear polarizability and the damping force play an important role in the angular rotation of CO molecule in conditions of 800 nm laser wavelength and 10¹⁵ W/cm² laser intensity. The contributions of the second-order field-induced dipole moment and the higher-order correction term to molecular rotation acceleration comparing to the linear polarizability and damping force are negligible. The extent of dynamic alignment of CO molecules reduces with the increasing of laser intensity. The dynamic alignment time of CO molecules is tightly connected to the laser pulse duration. The angular distributions of CO molecules as the laser pulse length varied from 50 to 250 fs at laser intensity of 3×10¹⁴ W/cm² are shown and discussed.