Ultrafast Reaction Imaging and Control by Ultrashort Intense Laser Pulses

Molecules irradiated with intense laser pulses (field intensity ∼1015 W/cm2) exhibit a variety of characteristic processes, such as tunneling ionization, electron rescattering, high-order harmonics generation and Coulomb explosion, that cannot be seen in a weak light field. These features have attracted attention in the last decades as they provide unique approaches to visualize and manipulate ultrafast dynamics of atoms and molecules. Here we discuss molecular processes in intense laser fields, with focuses on the applications to ultrafast imaging and control of reaction dynamics.