title: Nonsequential and sequential fragmentation of CO2(3+) in intense laser fields.
abstract: We experimentally studied the three-body fragmentation dynamics of CO(2) initiated by intense femtosecond laser pulses. Sequential and nonsequential fragmentations were precisely separated and identified for CO(2)(3+) to break up into O(+) + C(+) + O(+) ions. With accurate measurements of three-dimensional momentum vectors of the correlated atomic ions and calculations of the high-level ab initio potential of CO(2)(3+), we reconstructed the geometric structure of CO(2)(3+) before fragmentation, which turns out to be very close to that of the neutral CO(2) molecule before laser irradiation. Our study indicated that Coulomb explosion is a promising approach for imaging geometric structures of polyatomic molecules if the fragmentation dynamics can be clearly clarified and the appropriate dissociation potential is provided for multiply charged molecular ions.
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory for Mesoscopic Physics, Department of Physics, Peking University, Beijing 100871, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Cong
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Wu
authors.forename: Chengyin
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Wu
authors.forename: Di
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Song
authors.forename: Hongmei
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Su
authors.forename: Yudong
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Yang
authors.forename: Zhifeng
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Wu
authors.forename: Xianrong
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.forename: Hong
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.forename: Min
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Li
authors.forename: Yongkai
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Deng
authors.forename: Yunquan
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.forename: Liang-You
authors.initials: LY
authors.lastname: Peng
authors.forename: Hongbing
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Jiang
authors.forename: Qihuang
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Gong
mesh_terms: D002245:Carbon Dioxide / Q000737:chemistry*; D002412:Cations / Q000737:chemistry; D007700:Kinetics; D007834:Lasers; D008956:Models, Chemical; D013816:Thermodynamics
chemical_list: D002412:Cations; D002245:Carbon Dioxide