Explosive ionization of molecules in intense laser fields

We discuss the mechanisms of multielectron dissociative ionization of diatomic molecules in intense laser fields. We show that during dissociation of molecular ions the nuclei pass through a critical range of internuclear distances where ionization is enhanced by several orders of magnitude for several successive charge states of the molecule. The critical range of internuclear distances depends only weakly on the laser frequency, laser intensity, and the charge state. Both numerical and analytical models are developed, and the effect of enhanced ionization on the kinetic energy and angular distributions of charged fragments is discussed.