Interaction mechanism of some alkyl iodides with femtosecond laser pulses.

The interaction of 1-iodopropane, 2-iodopropane, 1-iodobutane, 2-iodobutane, and 1-iodopentane with (5 x 10(13-)5 x 10(15) W/cm2) femtosecond laser fields is studied by means of a time-of-flight mass spectrometer. It is found that multiphoton ionization (MPI) and field ionization (FI) processes are involved in the molecular ionization. The contribution of these processes can be distinguished using the peak profile of the ions in the mass spectra. Thus, from the mass spectra of 2-iodoropane and 2-iodobutane, it is concluded that MPI processes are taking place even for Keldysh parameter values gamma approximately 0.3. The field ionization process depends on the characteristics of the molecular binding potential well and leads to an asymmetric charge distribution of the transient multiply charged parent ions. In the case of 1-iodobutane, the MPI processes lead to a stable doubly charged parent ion production with a laser intensity threshold higher than that found for I2+ ions. In addition, the isomers studied exhibit distinct differences in their mass spectra and their origin is discussed in detail.