PREPARATION OF PSEUDOROTATING STATES IN PICOSECOND PUMP-PROBE EXPERIMENTS ON THE SODIUM TRIMER

Time-dependent first-order perturbation theory is used to simulate the preparation of wavepackets that are created in picosecond pump-probe experiments on the B state of Na-3. Due to the large temporal length o f the pump laser pulses used in these experiments, the wavepackets cre ated are superpositions of only a few angularly excited eigenfunctions . How the composition of the wavepackets varies over the duration of t he pump laser pulse is shown by observing the time dependence of the n odal structure of the wavepacket, its energy, and its norm. The possib ility of simulating the ion signal detected in these picosecond pump-p robe experiments is also discussed.