Ionization and fragmentation of C-60 via multiphoton-multiplasmon excitation

We study the intensity dependence of ionization and fragmentation of buckminsterfullerene (C-60) in strong laser fields. Our data provide strong evidence that at intensities less than or similar to 10(14) W/cm(2) these processes occur predominantly via multiphoton excitation of the 20 eV plasmon resonance of C-60 At least two plasmons have to be created to initiate fragmentation or multiple ionization.