| 1. |
- Lee, J. W.L., et al.
(author)
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Time-resolved relaxation and fragmentation of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons investigated in the ultrafast XUV-IR regime
- 2021
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In: Nature Communications. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 2041-1723. ; 12:1
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) play an important role in interstellar chemistry and are subject to high energy photons that can induce excitation, ionization, and fragmentation. Previous studies have demonstrated electronic relaxation of parent PAH monocations over 10-100 femtoseconds as a result of beyond-Born-Oppenheimer coupling between the electronic and nuclear dynamics. Here, we investigate three PAH molecules: fluorene, phenanthrene, and pyrene, using ultrafast XUV and IR laser pulses. Simultaneous measurements of the ion yields, ion momenta, and electron momenta as a function of laser pulse delay allow a detailed insight into the various molecular processes. We report relaxation times for the electronically excited PAH*, PAH(+*) and PAH(2+*) states, and show the time-dependent conversion between fragmentation pathways. Additionally, using recoil-frame covariance analysis between ion images, we demonstrate that the dissociation of the PAH(2+) ions favors reaction pathways involving two-body breakup and/or loss of neutral fragments totaling an even number of carbon atoms. Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons play an important role in interstellar chemistry, where interaction with high energy photons can induce ionization and fragmentation reactions. Here the authors, with XUV-IR pump-probe experiments, investigate the ultrafast photoinduced dynamics of fluorene, phenanthrene and pyrene, providing insight into their preferred reaction channels.
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| 2. |
- Cheng, Yu Chen, et al.
(author)
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Imaging multiphoton ionization dynamics of CH3I at a high repetition rate XUV free-electron laser
- 2021
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In: Journal of Physics B-Atomic Molecular and Optical Physics. - : IOP Publishing. - 0953-4075 .- 1361-6455. ; 54:1
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- XUV multiphoton ionization of molecules is commonly used in free-electron laser experiments to study charge transfer dynamics. However, molecular dissociation and electron dynamics, such as multiple photon absorption, Auger decay, and charge transfer, often happen on competing time scales, and the contributions of individual processes can be difficult to unravel. We experimentally investigate the Coulomb explosion dynamics of methyl iodide upon core-hole ionization of the shallow inner-shell of iodine (4d) and classically simulate the fragmentation by phenomenologically introducing ionization dynamics and charge transfer. Under our experimental conditions with medium fluence and relatively long XUV pulses (similar to 75 fs), we find that fast Auger decay prior to charge transfer significantly contributes to the charging mechanism, leading to a yield enhancement of higher carbon charge states upon molecular dissociation. Furthermore, we argue for the existence of another charging mechanism for the weak fragmentation channels leading to triply charged carbon atoms. This study shows that classical simulations can be a useful tool to guide the quantum mechanical description of the femtosecond dynamics upon multiphoton absorption in molecular systems.
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| 3. |
- Varvarezos, Lazaros, et al.
(author)
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Near-threshold two-photon double ionization of Kr in the vacuum ultraviolet
- 2021
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In: Physical Review A. - 2469-9926. ; 103:2
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- We report angle-resolved measurements on photoelectrons emitted upon near-threshold two-photon double ionization (TPDI) of Kr irradiated by free-electron laser (FEL) pulses. These photoelectron angular distributions (PADs) are compared with the results of semirelativistic R-matrix calculations. As reported by Augustin et al. [Phys. Rev. A 98, 033408 (2018)10.1103/PhysRevA.98.033408], it is found that the presence of autoionizing resonances within the bandwidth of the exciting FEL pulse strongly influences the PADs. In contrast to measurements on lower-Z targets such as Ne and Ar, the larger spin-orbit interaction, inherent in 4p-subshell hole states of Kr, permits us to resolve and study PADs associated with some of the fine-structure components of the Kr+ and Kr2+ ions.
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