Dissociation and Multiply Charged Silicon Ejection in High Abundance from Hexamethyldisilane

Abstract

Quadruply charged, neon-like silicon and helium-like carbon were generated by the exposure of hexamethyldisilane to intense femtosecond laser pulses. Dissociation of the silicon-silicon bond, the formation of highly charged silicons, as well as the saturation intensity of their formation were studied by mass spectroscopy. The production of these ions in high abundance, but also with lower laser intensity than theoretically expected for the element, was accomplished by using organosilicon compounds. Multiply charged silicon was generated at low laser intensity because stripping electrons from organosilicon compounds is much easier than from pure silicon due to the loose binding of electrons belonging to molecular orbitals. Femtosecond laser ionization is a valuable methodology for producing highly charged ions in high abundance and is useful in many fields of interest.