Time-dependent dynamics of intense laser-induced above threshold Coulomb explosion

We use our recently proposed model [1] to extract information about the nuclear dynamics from the recent Coulomb explosion data of Staudte {\it et al.} taken with 40 fs pulses [2]. That data, taken at multiple intensities near the ionization appearance intensity for both H$_2$ and D$_2$ in linearly and circularly polarized light, shows remarkable structure and regularity not easily explained by conventional models. Because our model does fit the spectra well, we can infer the qualitative time-dependent evolution of the system. In addition, we speculate about the possibility of rescattering leading to above threshold Coulomb explosion. \smallskip \newline [1] B.D. Esry, A.M. Sayler, P.Q. Wang, K.D. Carnes, and I. Ben-Itzhak, Phys. Rev. Lett. {\bf 97}, 013003 (2006). \newline [2] A. Staudte, D. Pavici\'c, S. Chelkowski, D. Zeidler, M. Meckel, H. Niikura, M. Sch\"offler, S. Sch\"ossler, B. Ulrich, P. P. Rajeev, Th. Weber, T. Jahnke, D.M. Villeneuve, A.D. Bandrauk, C.L. Cocke, P.B. Corkum, and R. D\"orner, Phys. Rev. Lett. (accepted).