Skip to main content
U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information

Dissociation Dynamics and Electronic Structures of Highly Excited Ferrocenium Ions Studied by Femtosecond XUV Absorption Spectroscopy

Journal Article · · Journal of Physical Chemistry. A, Molecules, Spectroscopy, Kinetics, Environment, and General Theory
 [1];  [1];  [2];  [1];  [3];  [2]
  1. Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States). Chemical Sciences Division; Univ. of California, Berkeley, CA (United States). Department of Chemistry
  2. Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States). Chemical Sciences Division
  3. Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States). Chemical Sciences Division; Univ. of California, Berkeley, CA (United States). Department of Chemistry and Department of Physics

In this work, the dissociation dynamics of ferrocene are explored following strong field ionization using femtosecond time-resolved extreme ultraviolet (XUV) transient absorption spectroscopy. Employing transitions in the vicinity of the iron 3p (M2,3) edge, the dissociation is monitored from the point of view of the iron atom. With low strong field pump intensities (≈2 × 1013 W cm-2), only ferrocenium cations are produced, and their iron 3p absorption spectrum is reported. It very closely resembles the 3p spectrum of atomic Fe+ ions but is red-shifted by 0.8 eV. With the aid of time-dependent density functional theory calculations, the spectrum is assigned to a combination of doublet and quartet spin states of ferrocenium ions. Ionization with more intense strong field pump pulses (≥6 × 1013 W cm–2) leads predominantly to the prompt production of ferrocenium ions that dissociate to give the spectral signature of bare Fe+ ions within 240 ± 80 fs. Within the temporal resolution of the experiment (≈40 fs), no spectral intermediates are observed, suggesting that the dissociation process occurs directly from the excited ferrocenium ion and that the bonds between the iron center and both cyclopentadienyl rings are broken almost simultaneously in an asynchronous concerted decay process. Finally, no evidence of slower dissociation channels is observed at a pump–probe delay of 250 ps, suggesting that all energy is very rapidly routed into dissociative states.

Research Organization:
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES) (SC-22). Chemical Sciences, Geosciences & Biosciences Division
DOE Contract Number:
AC02-05CH11231
OSTI ID:
1439209
Journal Information:
Journal of Physical Chemistry. A, Molecules, Spectroscopy, Kinetics, Environment, and General Theory, Journal Name: Journal of Physical Chemistry. A, Molecules, Spectroscopy, Kinetics, Environment, and General Theory Journal Issue: 48 Vol. 120; ISSN 1089-5639
Publisher:
American Chemical Society
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English

References (56)

A combined DFT and restricted open-shell configuration interaction method including spin-orbit coupling: Application to transition metal L-edge X-ray absorption spectroscopy journal May 2013
Fez+ (z = 1–6) generation from ferrocene journal January 2011
Measurements of the absolute photoionization cross section of Fe ions from 15.8 to 180 eV journal August 2002
Accurate Coulomb-fitting basis sets for H to Rn journal January 2006
A crossed laser-molecular beam study of the one and two photon dissociation dynamics of ferrocene at 193 and 248 nm journal April 1989
Nonlinear Absorption Properties and Excited State Dynamics of Ferrocene journal July 2009
Ultraviolet vapour-phase absorption spectra of d6 metallocenes journal November 1991
Strong-field induced XUV transmission and multiplet splitting in 4 d −1 6 p core-excited Xe studied by femtosecond XUV transient absorption spectroscopy journal December 2012
Density-Functional Theory for Time-Dependent Systems journal March 1984
Capturing Ultrafast Quantum Dynamics with Femtosecond and Attosecond X-ray Core-Level Absorption Spectroscopy journal January 2013
Femtosecond laser mass spectroscopy of ferrocenes: photochemical stabilization by bridged cyclopentadienyl rings? journal December 2000
Multiphoton excitation of ferrocene and vanadocene at 351 nm in comparison with 248 and 193 nm. Wavelength dependent competition between ionization and dissociation journal April 1993
Time-dependent density functional theory within the Tamm–Dancoff approximation journal December 1999
Tracking dissociation dynamics of strong-field ionized 1,2-dibromoethane with femtosecond XUV transient absorption spectroscopy journal January 2016
Development of the Colle-Salvetti correlation-energy formula into a functional of the electron density journal January 1988
Visible absorption spectrum of gaseous ferrocene journal April 1991
Mass-Resolved Nanosecond Laser Spectroscopy of Jet-Cooled Ferrocene in the Region of the 3dz2 → R4px,y One-Photon Rydberg Transition journal April 2003
Ultrafast Dissociation Dynamics of Ferrocene and [3]-Ferrocenophan journal March 2001
Core and valence excitations in resonant X-ray spectroscopy using restricted excitation window time-dependent density functional theory journal November 2012
Integral approximations for LCAO-SCF calculations journal October 1993
Multiphoton ionization of vanadocene and ferrocene at 248 and 193 nm. Wavelength-dependent competition between dissociation and ionization journal December 1992
A New Type of Organo-Iron Compound journal December 1951
Nanosecond multiphoton ionization spectroscopy of transition-metal sandwich compounds: a comparative study of nickelocene, ferrocene and bis(η6-benzene)chromium journal August 2004
Electronic Absorption Spectrum of Ferrocene journal June 1967
Advances in molecular quantum chemistry contained in the Q-Chem 4 program package journal September 2014
At Least 60 Years of Ferrocene: The Discovery and Rediscovery of the Sandwich Complexes journal May 2012
Dissociative photoionization of ferrocene in the Fe:3p inner-valence region journal June 1999
An intermediate neglect of differential overlap technique for spectroscopy of transition-metal complexes. Ferrocene journal January 1980
Balanced basis sets of split valence, triple zeta valence and quadruple zeta valence quality for H to Rn: Design and assessment of accuracy journal January 2005
Inhomogeneous Electron Gas journal November 1964
Correlations without coincidence measurements: deciding between stepwise and concerted dissociation mechanisms for ABC .-+. A + B + C journal December 1990
Inner-shell excitation of organoiron compounds by electron impact journal July 1992
Time-Dependent Density Functional Response Theory for Molecules book November 1995
Ultrafast strong-field dissociative ionization dynamics of CH2Br2 probed by femtosecond soft x-ray transient absorption spectroscopy journal May 2008
The stability and decomposition of gaseous chloroferrocenes
  • Barfuss, S.; Grade, M.; Hirschwald, W.
  • Journal of Vacuum Science & Technology A: Vacuum, Surfaces, and Films, Vol. 5, Issue 4 https://doi.org/10.1116/1.574619
journal July 1987
Core-to-valence spectroscopic detection of the CH2Br radical and element-specific femtosecond photodissociation dynamics of CH2IBr journal October 2014
Direct observation of ring-opening dynamics in strong-field ionized selenophene using femtosecond inner-shell absorption spectroscopy journal December 2016
A theoretical study on the spectral and electrochemical properties of Ferrocene in different solvents journal October 2013
Kβ X-ray Emission Spectroscopy Offers Unique Chemical Bonding Insights: Revisiting the Electronic Structure of Ferrocene journal July 2011
Quantitatively Correct UV-vis Spectrum of Ferrocene with TDB3LYP journal August 2013
Photo induced three body decay journal January 1997
High-efficiency dye-sensitized solar cells with ferrocene-based electrolytes journal January 2011
High-order harmonic generation using intense femtosecond pulses journal February 1993
Simultaneous determination of Fe 3pspin-orbit and exchange splittings in photoemission journal June 1995
Self-Consistent Equations Including Exchange and Correlation Effects journal November 1965
Density‐functional thermochemistry. III. The role of exact exchange journal April 1993
Photoionization cross sections of iron isonuclear sequence ions: Fe 2 + to Fe 6 + journal March 2009
Anatomy of strong field ionization journal January 2005
Direct Observation of the Transition-State Region in the Photodissociation of CH 3 I by Femtosecond Extreme Ultraviolet Transient Absorption Spectroscopy journal December 2015
Plasma perspective on strong field multiphoton ionization journal September 1993
Aspects of Photoinduced Molecular Three-Body Decay journal March 2000
Ionization and dissociation dynamics of vinyl bromide probed by femtosecond extreme ultraviolet transient absorption spectroscopy journal February 2014
Letter: Multiphoton ionisation mass spectrometry of metal organic compounds: avoiding the ultrafast neutral dissociation channels by femtosecond laser activation journal January 1996
The ORCA program system: The ORCA program system journal June 2011
Auxiliary basis sets to approximate Coulomb potentials journal June 1995
Intense-field laser ionization rates in atoms and molecules journal June 2001

Similar Records

Tracking dissociation dynamics of strong-field ionized 1,2-dibromoethane with femtosecond XUV transient absorption spectroscopy
Journal Article · Wed May 11 00:00:00 EDT 2016 · Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics. PCCP · OSTI ID:1439187

Transient absorption and reshaping of ultrafast XUV light by laser-dressed helium
Journal Article · Fri Jan 14 23:00:00 EST 2011 · Physical Review. A · OSTI ID:21537014

Ionization and dissociation dynamics of vinyl bromide probed by femtosecond extreme ultraviolet transient absorption spectroscopy
Journal Article · Thu Feb 13 23:00:00 EST 2014 · Journal of Chemical Physics · OSTI ID:22255122