Neutral Dissociation of Superexcited Nitric Oxide Induced by Intense Laser Fields

Superexcited states of NO molecule and their neutral dissociation processes have been stud-ied both experimentally and theoretically. Neutral excited N^? and O^? atoms are detected by fluorescence spectroscopy for the NO molecule upon interaction with 800 nm intense laser radiation of duration 60 fs and intensity 0.2 PW/cm². Intense laser pulse causes neu-tral dissociation of superexcited NO molecule by way of multiphoton excitation, which is equivalent to single photon excitation in the extreme-ultraviolet region by synchrotron ra-diation. Potential energy curves (PECs) are also built using the calculated superexcited state of NO⁺. In light of the PECs, direct dissociation and pre-dissociation mechanisms are proposed respectively for the neutral dissociation leading to excited fragments N^? and O^?.