Laser-induced nuclear motions in the Coulomb explosion of C₂H₂⁺ ions

The laser-induced multifragmentation of C₂H₂ into protons and multicharged carbon ions is shown to be a direct instantaneous explosion of the molecule. The evolution of the overall nuclear structure is studied through ion-ion correlation peak shapes. The ratios of the maxima of the kinetic-energy release distributions to the Coulomb repulsion energies calculated at the equilibrium internuclear distances are measured to be 45% for the protons and 53% for the C^Z+ ions for all the detected H⁺+C^Z′++C^Z++H⁺ fragmentation channels. The time scale for electronic polarization and stripping compared with the intramolecular electronic and nuclear time evolutions does not allow using a frozen molecular ion structure for the description of the explosion, thus explaining in part the observed fragmentation pattern. During the laser-induced alignment and subsequent stabilization of the molecular frame around the laser polarization direction, the carbon-carbon axis undergoes small damped oscillations that remain larger than the corresponding oscillations of the hydrogen-hydrogen axis. This difference comes from the lower moment of inertia of the hydrogen atoms compared with that of the carbon atoms in the molecule. However, the subsequent deviation from the initial linear structure remains small and is observed when the molecular ion is not completely aligned along the laser electric field.