Competitive ionization processes of anthracene excited with a femtosecond pulse in the multi-photon ionization regime.

To clarify the ionization mechanism of large molecules under multi-photon ionization conditions, photo-electron spectroscopic studies on anthracene have been performed with electron imaging technique. Electron kinetic energy distributions below a few eV reveal that three kinds of ionization channels coexist, viz., vertical ionization, ionization from Rydberg states, and thermionic hot electron emission. Their relative yield is determined by the characteristic of the laser pulse. The duration in particular influences the ratio between the first two processes, while for higher intensities the last process dominates. Our results provide strong evidence that internal conversion plays an important role for the ionization of the molecule.