Multielectron dissociative ionization of CO2in intense laser fields

Abstract
The multiphoton ionization of CO2 has been studied using a laser of 794 nm wavelength and focused intensities in the region of 1016 W cm-2. The kinetic energy distributions and ion yields obtained using time-of-flight spectroscopy coupled with covariance mapping can be interpreted most simply in terms of charge-symmetric fragmentation, the strongest channel being O2++C2++O2+. These results am compared with two previous experiments on CO2, one using an intense laser art 248 nm, the other using Si8+ ion projectiles of 3 MeV u-1 energy.