MULTIELECTRON DISSOCIATIVE IONIZATION OF CO2 IN INTENSE LASER FIELDS

The multiphoton ionization of CO2 has been studied using a laser of 794 nm WaVelength and focused intensities in the region of 10(16) 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 are compared with two recent experiments on CO2, one using an intense laser at 248 nm, the other using Si8+ ion projectiles of 3 MeV u-1 energy.