Sequential three-body Coulomb explosion of CS2 in intense laser fields appearing in momentum correlation map

The three-body Coulomb explosion process of CS2 in intense laser fields (60 fs, 0.36×1015 W/cm2), CS23+→S++C++S+, is studied by the triple coincidence momentum imaging of the atomic fragment ions. The set of the observed momentum vectors of the fragment ions determined for respective explosion events exhibits a clear trajectory originating from the rotational motion of an intermediate CS2+ ion, formed in a sequential explosion process of CS23+ prior to the complete three-body fragmentation. The contribution of the sequential pathway to the overall three-body explosion process is estimated to be 17(1)%.