Strong-field ionization of alcohols:: An electron spectroscopic study of ionization dynamics

Electron spectroscopy has been employed to probe the transition between the multiphoton ionization and tunneling ionization regimes upon irradiation of linear alcohol molecules, methanol, ethanol and 1-propanol, by 150 fs long pulses of linearly polarized 800 nm laser light at peak intensities up to 150 TW cm(-2). Somewhat unexpectedly, electron energy distributions reveal that the ionization dynamics proceed in atom-like manner and are adequately described by the conventional Keldysh-Faisal-Reiss model of atomic ionization. (C) 2007 Published by Elsevier B.V.