Charge stripping effects from highly charged iodine ions formed from Coulomb explosion of CH3I clusters

Abstract Iodine ions of high charge states are observed upon irradiation of methyl iodide clusters with an intense femtosecond laser pulse. All signals from multicharged ions exhibit a peak splitting in the time-of-flight mass spectra, indicating their origin from a Coulomb explosion process. These main peaks are accompanied by smaller peaks attributed to field ionization of highly charged species in the ion optics of the TOF mass spectrometer. It is shown that highly charged atomic ions formed from Coulomb explosion, upon interaction with electric field close to the mesh, can lose another electron leading to the formation of even higher charged species. The observation of this charge stripping process is evidence for the formation of highly excited ions in the course of the Coulomb explosion process, providing new insights into the mechanisms of femtosecond ionization involving multi-electron loss.