Infrared-enhanced multiphoton dissociation of iodobenzene cations

When gas-phase iodobenzene cations in an ion cyclotron resonance spectrometer are irradiated simultaneously with visible 610 nm and IR 977 cm⁻¹ photons, the visible two-photon process is enhanced by a factor of up to three. The experimental pressure and intensity dependences can be modeled using a set of rate equations for the evolution of the populations of different internal energy levels. Modeling suggests that the major mechanism for the mixed visible/IR process is the absorption of several IR photons, followed by the absorption of one visible photon which brings about dissociation: that the visible photoexcitation cross section decreases with increasing ion internal energy: that IR pumping does not compete successfully with relaxation processes near dissociation threshold: and that the IR radiative relaxation time is constant ≈ 500 ms.