Photoionization/dissociation of alkyl substituted benzene molecules using intense near-infrared radiation Original Research Article

The photoionization products for benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene and n-propylbenzene are measured using time-of-flight methods upon interaction with 780 nm radiation pulses of duration 170 fs and intensity 1013-13.6 W cm−2. The relative ionization yields scale as 1, 1.2, 1.4, and 0.35 for benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene and n-propylbenzene at maximum laser intensity. Limited dissociation was observed for benzene and toluene at all laser power densities. A significant (>5%) dissociation/ionization yield was observed for ethylbenzene and n-propylbenzene at the lowest laser power densities. The dissociation increased as 11th order and 9th order processes for ethylbenzene and n-propylbenzene, respectively to a maximum of 70% dissociation/ionization for n-propylbenzene at 3.8 × 1013 W cm−2. At 3.8 × 1013 W cm−2 the dissociation yield increases quadratically with alkyl chain length for the series. The observed ionization/dissociation trends are consistent with a model which incorporates both field ionization and energy redistribution concepts.