Controlling the spreading of wave packets of a dissociating molecule

A first-order perturbation theoretic approach within the electric-dipole approximation is used to study the time evolution of wave packets created by linearly chirped laser pulses on a repulsive potential of Br2. Our calculations show that negatively chirped pulses focus the wave packet in the Franck–Condon region whereas, as well known, the positively chirped pulses focus the wave packet in the asymptotic region. For the negatively chirped pulses, we show that the time corresponding to the minimum in the width of the wave packet can be predicted by an analytical formula.