MULTIPHOTON IONIZATION OF INERTIALLY CONFINED MOLECULAR-IONS

We study multiphoton ionization of molecular iodine up to I2(6+). These highly charged unstable ions are inertially confined during the duration of the laser pulse (80 fs) and can be identified by their characteristic fragmentation energy. This enables us to measure the ion yields for a large number of molecular ions. We generalize an atomic tunnel ionization model by taking molecular Stark shifts and induced dipole moments into account. This model predicts the observed appearance intensities.