Abstract

Most of the observations of IR multiphoton absorption (MPA) in polyatomic molecules that have been performed using line-selectable CO₂ lasers have revealed no spectroscopically assignable structure. This apparent absence of definite structure encouraged development of models that assume that MPA results simply in thermal heating of the molecule. However, recent observations of spectral structure in the two-laser multiphoton dissociation of C₂F₅Cl have cast doubt on the validity of the conventional picture that transitions are more or less equally allowed over a broad band in the quasi-continuum.¹

© 1983 Optical Society of America