Intensity-resolved ionization yields of aniline with femtosecond laser pulses

We present experimental results for the ionization of aniline and benzene molecules subjected to intense ultrashort laser pulses. Measured parent molecular ions yields were obtained using a recently developed technique capable of three-dimensional imaging of ion distributions within the focus of a laser beam. By selecting ions originating from the central region of the focus, where the spatial intensity distribution is nearly uniform, volumetric-free intensity-dependent ionization yields were obtained. The measured data revealed a previously unseen resonance-enhanced multiphoton ionization (REMPI)-like process. Comparison of benzene, aniline, and Xe ion yields demonstrates that the observed intensity-dependent structures are not due to geometric artifacts in the focus. Finally for intensities greater than {approx}3x10{sup 13} W/cm{sup 2}, we attribute the ionization of aniline to a stepwise process going through the {pi}{sigma}{sup *} state which sits three photons above the ground state and two photons below the continuum.