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 dissoc iation of molecular ions the nuclei pass through a critical range of i nternuclear distances where ionization is enhanced by several orders o f magnitude for several successive charge states of the molecule. The critical range of internuclear distances depends only weakly on the la ser frequency, laser intensity, and the charge state. Both numerical a nd analytical models are developed, and the effect of enhanced ionizat ion on the kinetic energy and angular distributions of charged fragmen ts is discussed.