The molecule we've been looking at is H₂⁺ which is two protons and an electron. When we hit this with a laser, the two protons can absorb the energy and fly away from each other. Think of it as when the photon hits one of the protons, they get pushed together. When two positively charged particles come close to each other, they repel. So the two protons will then leave and fly away from each other. We've looked at ways to analyze how often the protons will fly apart (dissociation) and whether or not the electron will tend to go in one direction or the other based on the laser pulse (asymmetry). There are a couple of ways other people in the world analyze this problem and we looked at the results each calculate to compare it with what we maintain is the "exact" calculation.

This research conducted with Dr. Brett Esry and the program is funded by the National Science Foundation through grant number PHY-0851599.