TRIATOMIC MOLECULAR STRUCTURE STUDIED BY ION-MOMENTUM IMAGING
AND MONTE-CARLO SIMULATION.
 
W A Bryan*, A El-Zein*, J H Sanderson*, W R Newell*, A J Langley# and P F
Taday#.

* Department of Physics and Astronomy, University College London, Gower
Street, London WC1E 6BT, UK
# Central Laser Facility, Rutherford Appleton Laboratory, Chilton, Didcot,
Oxon OX11 0QX, UK

Using a 55fs Ti: Sapphire laser focussed to generate field intensities of
3x10^16 Wcm^(-2), the Coulomb explosion of carbon dioxide has been imaged
using a time-of-flight mass spectrometer. A Monte-Carlo technique is
employed to reproduce the experimental results and the initial geometry and
orientation of the molecule is inferred.