Ionization Study of Isomeric Molecules in Strong-field Laser Pulses

Through the use of the technique of time-of-flight mass spectroscopy, we obtain strong-field ionization yields for randomly oriented 1,2-dichloroethylene (1,2-DCE) (C(2)H(2)Cl(2)) and 2-butene (C(4)H(8)). We are interested in studying the effect of conformal structure in strong-field ionization and, in particular, the role of molecular polarity. That is, we can perform strong-field ionization studies in polar vs non-polar molecules that have the same chemical composition. We report our findings through the ionization yields and the ratio (trans/cis) of each stereoisomer pair as a function of intensity.