Coulomb Explosions of Molecular Iodine With Ultrashort Pulses

Femtosecond pulses offer the possibility of producing and studying highly transient molecular species. We report the formation of highly charged molecules that are nearly instantly produced with a nuclear separation of the uncharged precursor. We have chosen iodine since the atoms are massive, the vibrational period in the ground electronic state is low, and the equilibrium internuclear separation is large.