Control of laser induced molecular fragmentation of n-propyl benzene using chirped femtosecond laser pulses

We present the effect of chirping a femtosecond laser pulse on the fragmentation of n-propyl benzene. An enhancement of an order of magnitude for the relative yields Of C3H3+ and C5H5+ in the case of negatively chirped pulses and C6H5+ in the case of positively chirped pulses With respect to the transform-limited pulse indicates that in some fragmentation channel, coherence of the laser field plays an important role. For the relative yield of all other heavier fragment ions, resulting from the interaction of the intense laser field with the molecule, there is no such enhancement effect with the sign of chirp, within experimental errors. The importance of the laser phase is further reinforced through a direct comparison of the fragmentation results with the second harmonic of the chirped laser pulse with identical bandwidth. (C) 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.