Anomalous intensity-dependent vibrational distributions of oxygen molecules in a nonresonant laser field: A molecular perspective

Disentangling Multiphoton Ionization and Dissociation Channels in Molecular Oxygen Using Photoelectron-Photoion Coincidence Imaging

Multiphoton excitation of molecular oxygen in the 392-408 nm region is studied using a tunable femtosecond laser coupled with a double velocity map imaging photoelectron-photoion coincidence spectrometer. The laser intensity is held at ≤∼1 TW/cm2 to ensure excitation in the perturbative regime, where the possibility of resonance enhanced multiphoton ionization (REMPI) can be investigated. O2+ production is found to be resonance enhanced around 400 nm via three-photon excitation to the e'3Δu(v = 0) state, similar to results from REMPI studies using nanosecond dye lasers. O+ production reaches 7% of the total ion yield around 405 nm due to two processes: autoionization following five-photon excitation of O2, producing O2+(X(v)) in a wide range of vibrational states followed by two- or three-photon dissociation, or six-photon excitation to a superexcited O2** state followed by neutral dissociation and subsequent ionization of the electronically excited O atom. Coincidence detection is shown to be crucial in identifying these competing pathways.

Nonresonant ionization of oxygen molecules by femtosecond pulses: Plasma dynamics studied by time-resolved terahertz spectroscopy

We show that optical pump-terahertz probe spectroscopy is a direct experimental tool for exploring laser-induced ionization and plasma formation in gases. Plasma was produced in gaseous oxygen by focused amplified femtosecond pulses. The ionization mechanisms at 400- and 800-nm excitation wavelengths differ significantly being primarily of a multiphoton character in the former case and a strong-field process in the latter case. The generation of the plasma in the focal volume of the laser and its expansion on subnanosecond time scale is directly monitored through its density-dependent susceptibility. A Drude model used to evaluate the plasma densities and electron-scattering rates successfully captures the observations for a wide range of pump intensities. In addition, rotational fingerprints of molecular and ionic species were also observed in the spectra.