Wave packet dynamics and photofragmentation in time-dependent quadratic potentials

We study the dynamics of generalized harmonic oscillator states in time-dependent quadratic potentials and derive analytical expressions for the momentum space and the Wigner phase space representation of these wave packets. Using these results we consider a model for the rotational excitation of a diatomic fragment produced in the photofragmentation of a triatomic molecule and we highlight the signatures of classical mechanics in the final product distribution of this process. (C) 1996 American Institute of Physics.