H. Figger, D. Pavicic, A. Kiess and T.W. Hänsch
An ionic beam of heteronuclear hyrogen molecular ions were exposed to femtosecond pulsed intense laser pulses and the velocity distribution of the fragments measured by a 2-dimensional detector.All the three decay channels can be well discerned namely the two dissociation channels HD+ to H + D+ , HD+ to D + H+, and the Coulomb channel HD+ to H+ + D+ + e- were well separated and are observed with vibratioanal resolution like in the cases of H2+ and D2+ before. Small features of the permanent dipole moment of HD+ are identified. The probability for the two dissociation channels differs as a consequence of the breakdown of the Born Oppenheimer approximation.