Tandem time of flight techniques and multiphoton mass spectrometry: The ladder switching in benzene

The stepwise multiphoton ionization and fragmentation of benzene could be followed employing our new laser tandem mass spectrometer, a combination of a new, high-resolution, short, linear time-of-flight instrument with a reflectron time-of-flight analyzer. The fragmentation tree proposed in a previous theoretical paper of our group was largely verified; also some new details were discovered. Obviously, ladder switching is operative throughout this process. We discuss some generalizations to multiphoton ionization of polyatomic organic molecules.