Ionization and fragmentation of anthracene with an intense femtosecond laser pulse at 1.4 μm

Anthracene molecule was ionized with 130-fs pulses at two wavelengths, 0.8 and 1.4 μm. Anthracene ionized at 1.4 μm showed predominance of molecular ions with only few fragment ions, whereas excitation with 0.8-μm pulse produced many fragment ions. These observations are explained in terms of non-resonant (1.4 μm) vs. resonant (0.8 μm) excitations with the electronic levels of anthracene cation.