Role of the molecular electronic configuration in the Coulomb fragmentation of N2, C2H2and C2H4in an intense laser field

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Abstract
The influence of the electronic structure on the molecular response to an intense picosecond laser at lambda =616 nm and I=2*1015 W cm-2 is investigated for N2, C2H2 and C2H4. The fragmentation pattern into charge-symmetric NZ+NZ'+ and CZ++CZ'+ Coulomb fragmentation channels is found to be similar for N2 and C2H2 which have close ground state electronic configurations. The laser molecule coupling for the production of CZ++CZ'+ dissociation pathways is more efficient for C2H2 than for C2H4 due to the respectively different pi 4 and pi 2 electron configuration of the C-C bond. The overall experimental data suggest that the laser energy is absorbed by molecular orbital type electrons, even in the case of a nuclear structure deformation, while the molecule decays into Coulomb fragmentation channels with kinetic energy releases independent of the laser excitation conditions as observed in previous experiments.