Coulomb explosion ofN2andCO2using linearly and circularly polarized femtosecond laser pulses

Abstract

Laser-induced molecular coulomb explosion of ${\mathrm{N}}_{2}$ and ${\mathrm{CO}}_{2}$ is studied experimentally using linearly and circularly polarized laser light in the ${10}^{15}{\mathrm{W}/\mathrm{c}\mathrm{m}}^{2}$ intensity range at $\ensuremath{\lambda}=800\mathrm{nm}.$ The fragmentation kinetic energy releases are found to be identical in both cases using two different experimental methods. These results show that the molecular relaxation is independent of the respective directions of the laser electric field and of the internuclear axis. These results are confirmed by varying the linear laser polarization direction relative to the explosion direction of ${\mathrm{N}}_{2}$ and ${\mathrm{CO}}_{2}.$ Moreover, since in the linear case the molecular reorientation occurs along the laser electric field direction, these results show that inertial effects are not responsible for the possible elongation of the internuclear distances.