Dissociative ionization of a large molecule studied by intense phase-controlled laser fields

We report on the dissociative ionization of a large polyatomic molecule induced by quantum control of tunneling ionization. The directionally asymmetric tunneling ionization induced by phase-controlled two-color (ω+2ω) intense (1.0× 1013 W cm2) laser fields with 130-fs pulses led to selective ionization of oriented molecules, which reflect the geometric nature of the highest occupied molecular orbital. We conclude that in the case of 1-iodohexane the molecular Ammosov-Delone-Krainov model for tunneling ionization is qualitatively valid even for the large polyatomic molecule, and that the nonadiabatic multielectron dynamics, which lead to fragmentation, play a much more important role in molecular cations than in neutral molecules.