English

Strong light fields coax intramolecular reactions on femtosecond time scales

Atomic Physics 2009-11-10 v1

Abstract

Energetic H2+_2^+ ions are formed as a result of intra-molecular rearrangement during fragmentation of linear alcohols (methanol, ethanol, propanol, hexanol, and dodecanol) induced by intense optical fields produced by 100 fs long, infrared, laser pulses of peak intensity 8×1015\times10^{15} W cm2^{-2}. Polarization dependent measurements show, counterintuitively, that rearrangement is induced by the strong optical field within a single laser pulse, and that it occurs before Coulomb explosion of the field-ionized multiply charged alcohols.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.physics/0408007,
  title  = {Strong light fields coax intramolecular reactions on femtosecond time scales},
  author = {M. Krishnamurthy and F. A. Rajgara and D. Mathur},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:physics/0408007},
  year   = {2009}
}