Fragmentation dynamics of Ar$_{2}^{+}$ dimers in intense laser fields*

We studied the fragmentation dynamics of the Ar$_{2}$ dimers in 790 nm pump and 1400 nm probe pulses with intensities of 10$^{14}$ W/cm$^{2}$ by analyzing kinetic energy release (KER) spectra as a function of the pump probe delay. The KER spectra are measured by detecting Ar-ion fragments in a COLTRIMS [1] setup and are compared with model calculations based on the numerical propagations of the time-dependent Schr\"{o}dinger equation [2]. The measured spectra are best reproduced by two-state calculations that include the adiabatic electronic states I(1/2)$_{u}$ and II(1/2)$_{g}$ of Ar$_{2}^{+}$, dipole coupled in the pump- and probe-laser electric fields. \\[4pt] [1] J. Wu, A. Vredenborg, B. Ulrich, L. Ph. H. Schmidt, M. Meckel, S. Voss, H. Sann, H. Kim, T. Jahnke, and R. D\"{o}rner, PRA \textbf{83}, 061403(R) (2011) \\[0pt] [2] M. Magrakvelidze, F. He, Th. Niederhausen, I. V. Litvinyuk, and U. Thumm, PRA \textbf{79}, 033410 (2009).