Self-action effects in ionization and fragmentation of toluene by femtosecond laser pulses

Abstract

Occurrence and influence of several self-action effects, induced in the entrance window of a time-of-flight interaction chamber, on the ion and fragment yields of the toluene molecule in the focus of a Ti:sapphire laser pulse are analyzed. Experimental data are obtained using different focusing geometries and are compared with results from numerical simulations using a nonlinear pulse propagation model as well as those from the strong-field S-matrix theory. It is shown that (a) self-focusing leads to a displacement of the focus while amplified small perturbations of the input beam result in hot spots in the spatial distribution and in an energy-dependent focus area, (b) small self-phase modulation changes the form of the spectrum and broadens it slightly. A strong increase of the toluene fragmentation appears to correlate to linear and nonlinear changes in the focal spot area, while the scenario of excitation of Raman modes proposed in an earlier publication is ruled out as the dominant effect.