Abstract

The interaction of strong laser fields with atoms and molecules is of great interest when the laser field strength is strong enough to ionize many electrons during the femtosecond interaction time. This interaction will lead to multielectron dissociative ionization (MEDI) in a molecule. The ionization rate reaches maximum at the critical intemuclear separation R_c where electron localization and enhanced ionization occur due to the double well potential of a molecule. Charge symmetric dissociation (CSD), such as ${\text{N}}_2^{2+}\to {\text{N}}^{+}+{\text{N}}^{+}$, appears to dominant the MEDI process if the molecule expends to the critical intemuclear separation during the laser pulse.

© 1999 Optical Society of America