Electron-ion elastic scattering in molecules probed by laser-induced ionization

Electron-molecular ion elastic scattering is probed in CO(2) in the 15-30 eV range using laser-induced single ionization of neutral species in the 8 x 10(13)-2 x 10(14) W cm(-2) intensity range. The experimental procedure follows the proposal of Lin and coworkers (2007 Phys. Rev. A 76 043402, 2008 New J. Phys. 10 025011) and is illustrated with atomic argon. In CO(2), the angular distributions of backscattered electrons are found to depend on the collision energy as in electron-neutral molecule elastic scattering. The relatively simple experimental method may lead to time-resolved studies of structural changes in molecules with sub-femtosecond resolution.