Maximum kinetic energy release per fragment plotted as a function of the product of two fragment charges in each channel

<p><strong>Figure 10.</strong> Maximum kinetic energy release per fragment plotted as a function of the product of two fragment charges in each channel. The saturation of the curve for nitrogen suggests fast explosion competing with the duration of the FEL pulse (100 fs), while for the heavier iodine atoms the explosion is slower, as expected.</p> <p><strong>Abstract</strong></p> <p>Single-shot time-of-flight spectra for Coulomb explosion of N₂ and I₂ molecules have been recorded at the Free Electron LASer in Hamburg (FLASH) and have been analysed using a partial covariance mapping technique. The partial covariance analysis unravels a detailed picture of all significant Coulomb explosion pathways, extending up to the N⁴⁺–N⁵⁺ channel for nitrogen and up to the I⁸⁺–I⁹⁺ channel for iodine. The observation of the latter channel is unexpected if only sequential ionization processes from the ground state ions are considered. The maximum kinetic energy release extracted from the covariance maps for each dissociation channel shows that Coulomb explosion of nitrogen molecules proceeds much faster than that of the iodine. The N₂ ionization dynamics is modelled using classical trajectory simulations in good agreement with the outcome of the experiments. The results suggest that covariance mapping of the Coulomb explosion can be used to measure the intensity and pulse duration of free-electron lasers.