Staudte, A.Pavičić, D.Chelkowski, S.Zeidler, D.Meckel, M.Niikura, H.Schöffler, M.Schössler, S.Ulrich, B.Rajeev, P. P.Weber, Th.Jahnke, T.Villeneuve, D. M.Bandrauk, A. D.Cocke, C. L.Corkum, P. B.Dörner, R.2023-12-072023-12-072007-02-14https://hdl.handle.net/2097/43714Using H+2 and D+2, we observe two-surface population dynamics by measuring the kinetic energy of the correlated ions that are created when H+2 (D+2) ionize in short (40–140 fs) and intense (1014 W/cm2) infrared laser pulses. Experimentally, we find a modulation of the kinetic energy spectrum of the correlated fragments. The spectral progression arises from a hitherto unexpected spatial modulation on the excited state population, revealed by Coulomb explosion. By solving the two-level time-dependent Schrödinger equation, we show that an interference between the net-two-photon and the one-photon transition creates localized electrons which subsequently ionize.© American Physical Society (APS). This Item is protected by copyright and/or related rights. You are free to use this Item in any way that is permitted by the copyright and related rights legislation that applies to your use. For other uses you need to obtain permission from the rights-holder(s).http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/https://web.archive.org/web/20181120135245/https://journals.aps.org/copyrightFAQ.htmlText