Coincidence imaging of Coulomb explosion of CS2 in intense laser fields

The coincidence imaging technique is applied to direct determination of the momentum vectors of all the fragment ions produced through every event of the Coulomb explosion of a single molecular ion, CS22+ (z = 2-4) formed in intense laser of CS23+ just fields (similar to 60 fs, 0.36 x 10(15) W/cm(2) ). The molecular structure I before the Coulomb explosion, CS23+ --> S+ + C + + S+, is reconstructed from the measured momentum vectors of the fragment ions. The mean C-S bond length of <r > = 2.5 Angstrom and the azimuthally averaged S-C-S bond angle, < gamma > = 145 degrees, thus determined indicat e that structural deformation occurs to a large extent in the intense laser fields. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.