The dissociation dynamics of diatomic molecules in intense laser fields

We have used interferometric techniques to show unambiguously that the fragment ion energies produced in the multielectron dissociative ionization (MEDI) of iodine vary with laser pulse rise time. A field ionization, Coulomb explosion model is found to reproduce MEDI data on remarkably well. The lack of features associated with post-dissociative ionization in the MEDI spectra of is explained in terms of low dissociation rates for the singly (and possibly doubly) charged parent ions. These results remove the need for the much discussed, but highly speculative, process of `laser-induced stabilization'.