DISSOCIATION DYNAMICS OF HIGHLY-CHARGED MOLECULES IN INTENSE LASER FIELDS

Covariance mapping is used to study the dissociation dynamics of highl y-charged triatomic molecules possessing linear (CS2) and bent (NO2) e quilibrium geometries, and linear carbon clusters. An intense picoseco nd laser is utilized to produce these highly-charged species. The meas ured values of kinetic energy release when such ions dissociate are ve ry much less than those measured in single-photon and electron-impact experiments. This reduction is likely to be a manifestation of the ext ent to which molecular potential energy surfaces are ''flattened'' by the action of the intense, linearly polarized laser radiation, akin to the bond-softening process that has been observed in the case of diat omic molecules. Our observations indicate that distortion of molecular potential energy surfaces may be the dominating feature in interactio ns between intense fields and linear molecules; the dynamics in the ca se of molecules possessing nonlinear geometries is much more complex a nd vector correlations appear to also play an important role.