Laser Coulomb-explosion imaging of small molecules

Journal Article · Sat Jan 01 04:00:00 EST 2005 · Physical Review. A

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevA.71.013415· OSTI ID:20650268

Legare, F ^[1]; Lee, Kevin F; Dooley, P W ^[1]; Litvinyuk, I V ^[2]; Wesolowski, S S; Bunker, P R; Villeneuve, D M; Corkum, P B ^[1]; Dombi, P; Krausz, F ^[3]; Bandrauk, A D ^[4]

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1. National Research Council of Canada, 100 Sussex Drive, Ottawa, Ontario, K1A 0R6 (Canada)
2. Department of Physics, Kansas State University, Manhattan, Kansas 66506 (United States)
3. Technische Universitaet Wien, Vienna (Austria)
4. Departement de Chimie, Universite de Sherbrooke, Sherbrooke, Quebec, J1K 2R1 (Canada)

We use intense few-cycle laser pulses to ionize molecules to the point of Coulomb explosion. We use Coulomb's law or ab initio potentials to reconstruct the molecular structure of D{sub 2}O and SO{sub 2} from the correlated momenta of exploded fragments. For D{sub 2}O, a light and fast system, we observed about 0.3 A and 15 deg. deviation from the known bond length and bond angle. By simulating the Coulomb explosion for equilibrium geometry, we showed that this deviation is mainly caused by ion motion during ionization. Measuring three-dimensional structure with half bond length resolution is sufficient to observe large-scale rearrangements of small molecules such as isomerization processes.

• OSTI ID: 20650268
• Journal Information: Physical Review. A, Journal Name: Physical Review. A Journal Issue: 1 Vol. 71; ISSN 1050-2947; ISSN PLRAAN
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

74 ATOMIC AND MOLECULAR PHYSICS
BOND ANGLE
BOND LENGTHS
COULOMB EXCITATION
EQUILIBRIUM
GEOMETRY
HEAVY WATER
IONIZATION
IONS
ISOMERIZATION
LASER RADIATION
MOLECULAR STRUCTURE
MOLECULES
POTENTIALS
PULSES
SULFUR DIOXIDE
THREE-DIMENSIONAL CALCULATIONS
VISIBLE RADIATION