Observation of Above-Threshold Dissociation of Na2+ in Intense Laser Fields
Abstract
We report the observation of above-threshold dissociation of a multielectron molecular system, Na2+. The process is due to continuum-continuum transitions in a field-dressed molecular continuum. Three well resolved fragmentation channels with different kinetic energy release patterns have been detected, of which, two are associated with ordinary photodissociation via light-induced potentials into Na(3s) + Na+ and Na(3p) + Na+, and one with continuum-continuum transitions and above-threshold dissociation into Na(3p) + Na+. We show that when we dress this molecule with a field whose intensity is ~3 x 1012 W/cm2, above-threshold dissociation prevails over other processes, such as field-ionization followed by Coulomb explosion.
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