Polarization-Dependence of Coulomb Explosion of CO Irradiated with an Intense Femtosecond Laser Pulse

Laser-induced Coulomb explosion of CO is studied experimentally using differently polarized femtosecond laser pulses of 2 x 10¹⁵W/cm² intensity at λ = 800 nm. The channels of molecular Coulomb explosion are observed to be independent of the laser polarizations. The critical distance R is deduced to be larger for the circularly polarized light in comparison with the linearly polarized light. The initial emissions of C⁺, C²⁺, O⁺, and O²⁺ ions are anisotropic for linear polarization and isotropic for circular polarization. The suppression of ionization occurs for the elliptically and circularly polarized lasers.