The dissociative ionization of CO2 in the 800 nm intense laser field using time-of-flight (TOF) mass spectrometry

The dissociation of carbon dioxide in an intense (1013–1014 W/cm2) femtosecond laser field has been investigated. The stepwise nature of the dissociation has been verified experimentally by analyzing the time-of-flight mass spectroscopic patterns at different laser intensities. The experimental identification shows that if the laser intensity is gradually increased, CO2+ is first formed, followed by a dissociation of one of the CO bonds. Further increase of the laser intensity leads to the dissociation of the second CO bond. Only O+ fragment ion shows anisotropic angular distribution.

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► The step-wise dissociation of CO2 has been demonstrated experimentally.
► Monitoring the dissociation morphology with the laser intensity indicates only singly charged ions.
► No sign for multiply charged ions indicating no Coulomb explosion.
► The ion yield increases as the laser intensity increases and falls down again with laser intensity.
► Among all ions found, only the O+ was found to have anisotropic angular distribution.