Light-induced potentials ignite dissociation of N22+

Direct ionization to dissociative potential curves is the dominant explanation for intense-field dissociative ionization of N-2. In this article we contradict this notion by showing that the dissociation of N-2(2+) adiabatically follows the avoided crossing formed by the parallel to X (3)Pi(u),n > and parallel to D (3)Pi(g),n-1 > dressed curves. Dissociation along this light-induced molecular potential implies that one photon is absorbed and adds to the kinetic release of the fragments. We compare the fragmentation energies for three different laser wavelengths and find that nitrogen shows photon absorption whereas iodine does not. From this we conclude that one must account for the absorbed photon when interpreting the time-of-flight spectra for molecules with appreciable nuclear motion during the laser pulse. In nitrogen, doing so allows us to identify enhanced ionization of the dication at 2.2 A independent of laser wavelength.