Laser-induced Coulomb explosion of the LiI molecule and of its dimer

Abstract

A gas-phase sample consisting of lithium iodide, $\mathrm{LiI}$, molecules and their dimer $\mathrm{(LiI)}_2$, are Coulomb exploded by an intense 25 femtosecond laser pulse. In the case of $\mathrm{LiI}$, we focus on the double ionization that creates a pair of $\mathrm{Li}^+$ and $\mathrm{I}^+$ recoil ions. From the kinetic energy distribution of the $\mathrm{Li}^+$ ions, extracted using coincidence filtering, we determine the distribution of internuclear distances $P(R)$ via the ground state potential curve of $\mathrm{LiI}^{2+}$ obtained from an ab initio calculation that accounts for non-Coulombic effects. We find that the center of $P(R)$ is close to the expected internuclear separation based on the three vibrational states of $\mathrm{LiI}$ populated, whereas the width of $P(R)$ exceeds the theoretical value by $\sim$ 52 %. We discuss if fragmentation via excited $\mathrm{LiI}^{2+}$ potential curves affects the determination of $P(R)$. In the case of the dimer, $\mathrm{(LiI)}_2$, we observe kinetic energies and relative emission directions of $\mathrm{Li}^+$, $\mathrm{I}^+$, and $\mathrm{I}^{2+}$ recoil ions consistent with Coulomb explosion of the parallelogram-shaped dimer after removing up to six electrons by the laser pulse.