Stimulated predissociation of CO$^{2+}$ using intense ultrashort laser pulses

The carbon monoxide dication is an unusual species that is metastably bound despite strong electrostatic repulsion of its charged centers. Normally, the majority of the CO$^{2+}$ bound vibrational states decay by predissociation, with a lifetime on the order of nanoseconds to microseconds, due to strong coupling with a~repulsive state. By forming the CO$^{2+}$ ions as a molecular ion beam, we explore the possibility of manipulating this coupling using an intense ($\sim $10$^{14}$ W/cm$^{2})$, ultrashort ($<$40 fs), 790 nm laser pulse. Only the $v$=0 level of the ground electronic state survives the trip from source to laser interaction point, thereby, enabling a kinematically complete study of vibrationally cold CO$^{2+}$ using a coincidence 3D momentum imaging technique.