Temporal pulsewidth and the wavelength dependences of the product ions obtained by laser ablation of solid C60

By ablating solid C60 with a laser pulse, we observe various processes such as the prompt- and the delayed-ionization of C60, the fragmentation into molecular ions and the formation of cluster ions. We found these processes show distinct dependences on the temporal pulse width, the power and the wavelength of the ablation laser. From the observations, we could confirm efficient coupling of laser energy to C60 through the molecular absorption even with a laser pulse width less than the electron-phonon coupling time of the C60 molecule.