Coulomb explosion of N-2 and CO2 using linearly and circularly polarized femtosecond laser pulses

Laser-induced molecular coulomb explosion of N-2 and CO2 is studied experim entally using linearly and circularly polarized laser Light in the 10(15) W /cm(2) intensity range at lambda = 800 nm. The fragmentation kinetic energy releases are found to be identical in both cases using two different exper imental methods. These results show that the molecular relaxation is indepe ndent of the respective directions of the laser electric field and of the i nternuclear axis. These results are confirmed by varying the linear laser p olarization direction relative to the explosion direction of N-2? and CO2. Moreover, since in the linear case the molecular reorientation occurs along the laser electric field direction, these results show that inertial effec ts are not responsible for the possible elongation of the internuclear dist ances. [S1050-2947(99)06103-X].