Intact Molecular Ion Formation of Some Organic Molecules by Femtosecond Lasers

Summary

Ionization of organic molecules irradiated with intense infrared femtosecond pulses is explained from the perspective of intact molecular ion formation. Although fragmentation is more suppressed in general by femtosecond pulse excitation than pico- and nanosecond pulse excitations, molecules are still often heavily fragmented. Among the excitation parameters affecting ionization and fragmentation processes, excitation wavelengths and pulse durations at a fixed laser intensity have been found to drastically change ionization patterns. Intact molecular ions are produced when the wavelengths are non-resonant with the electronic levels of cations, whereas fragmentation proceeds to a large extent when the wave length is resonant with the electronic transitions. An ultimately short pulse presumably leads to the formation of fragment-free ions. Time-of-flight spectra of femtosecond pulse ionization of cyclohexadiene isomers, 2,3-dimethyl-1,3-butadiene, naphthalene, anthracene, and dioxin are presented. The great advantage of femtosecond laser mass spectrometry (FLMS) for the intact molecular ion formation is shown by referring briefly to the results obtained for dioxin. Some details of the experimental methods, such as a method of estimating irradiation intensity, are described.