E. M. Snyder, S. A. Buzza, and A. W. Castleman, Jr. Department of Chemistry, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, Pennsylvania 16802 (Received 22 April 1996)
We report the results for the production of highly charged atomic species (e.g., Xe201, Kr181, O51, and C41) resulting from the interaction of intense laser fields (up to ,1015 Wycm2) with atomic and multicenter molecular clusters. The processes are also investigated using ultrafast pump-probe techniques, showing distinct beating patterns for the ionization structure in the molecular system. A comparison of our results with predictions of several different theoretical models provides strong support for the ionization ignition mechanism. [S0031-9007(96)01396-8
