Femtosecond wave-packet dynamics in cesium dimers studied through controlled stimulated emission

We study the dynamics of wave packets in cesium dimers using a femtosecond-controlled pump-probe technique. We implement configurations with one pulse (pump) or two pulses (pump and control) to produce vibrational wave packets on the electronic excited state. The transmission of an additional, variable-delay probe pulse is measured to monitor the time evolution of the wave packets. In the case of the pump-control-probe configuration, a superposition of two independent wave packets is observed. In order to elucidate the observed experimental data, we develop a theory based on the Liouville equation for the density matrix associated with the Franck-Condon factors. Both the numerical and analytical calculations are in good agreement with our experimental results.