Kinetic energy release of diatomic and linear triatomic molecules in intense femtosecond laser fields

The kinetic energy release of fragment ions produced by the interaction of femtosecond laser pulse radiation with diatomic and linear triatomic molecules N₂, CO, CO₂ and CS₂ is investigated. In the case of linear polarization, angles at which the kinetic energy release of ions has the maximum value are different from the alignment of molecules though the kinetic energy release of fragment atomic ions depends on the angle between the laser polarization vector and the detection axis of the time-of-flight. For the diatomic molecules, the critical internuclear distance in multielectron dissociative ionization with a circularly polarized light is larger than that with a linearly polarized light. For linear triatomic molecules, our data indicate that a concerted Coulomb explosion process is a universal phenomenon in the interaction of molecules with intense laser fields, even in the circularly polarized regime. During two C–O (or C–S) bonds breaking simultaneously, the C ion obtained larger energy in circular polarization than that in the linear polarization. Different variations of kinetic energy release between the diatomic and the linear triatomic molecules are discussed.