Time evolution in the Morse potential using supersymmetry: dissociation of the NO molecule

Abstract

We present an algebraic method for treating molecular vibrations in the Morse potential perturbed by an external laser field. By the help of a complete and normalizable basis we transform the Schrödinger equation into a system of coupled ordinary differential equations. We apply our method to calculate the dissociation probability of the NO molecule excited by chirped laser pulses. The dependence of the molecular dipole-moment on the interatomic separation is determined by a quantum-chemical method, and the corresponding transition dipole moments are given by approximate analytic expressions. These turn out to be very small between neighboring stationary states around the vibrational quantum number $m=42$, therefore we propose to use additional pulses in order to skip this trapping state, and to obtain a reasonable dissociation probability.