Femtosecond Laser Mass Spectrometry and High Harmonic Spectroscopy of Xylene Isomers
Abstract
Structural isomers, molecules having the same chemical formula but with atoms bonded in different order, are hard to identify using conventional spectroscopy and mass spectrometry. They exhibit virtually indistinguishable mass spectra when ionized by electrons. Laser mass spectrometry based on photoionization of the isomers has emerged as a promising alternative but requires shaped ultrafast laser pulses. Here we use transform limited femtosecond pulses to distinguish the isomers using two methods. First, we probe doubly charged parent ions with circularly polarized light. We show that the yield of doubly charged ortho-xylene decreases while para-xylene increases over a range of laser intensities when the laser polarization is changed from linear to circular. Second, we probe high harmonic generation from randomly oriented isomer molecules subjected to an intense laser field. Here we show that the yield of high-order harmonics varies with the positioning of the methyl group in xylene isomers (ortho-, para- and meta-) and is due to differences in the strength of tunnel ionization and the overlap between the angular peaks of ionization and photo-recombination.
- Authors:
-
- Univ. of Ottawa, Ottawa, ON (Canada); King Abdulaziz City for Science and Technology (KACST), Riyadh (Saudi Arabia)
- Univ. of Ottawa, Ottawa, ON (Canada)
- Imperial College London, London (United Kingdom)
- INRS-EMT, Varennes (Canada)
- Instituto de Química Fisica Rocasolano, Madrid (Spain)
- Kansas State Univ., Manhattan, KS (United States)
- Publication Date:
- Research Org.:
- Kansas State Univ., Manhattan, KS (United States)
- Sponsoring Org.:
- USDOE
- OSTI Identifier:
- 1500098
- Grant/Contract Number:
- FG02-86ER13491
- Resource Type:
- Accepted Manuscript
- Journal Name:
- Scientific Reports
- Additional Journal Information:
- Journal Volume: 8; Journal Issue: 1; Journal ID: ISSN 2045-2322
- Publisher:
- Nature Publishing Group
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
- Subject:
- 71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSICS
Citation Formats
Alharbi, Abdullah, Boguslavskiy, Andrey E., Austin, Dane, Thiré, Nicolas, Wood, D., Hawkins, P., McGrath, Felicity, Johnson, A. S., Lopez-Quintas, I., Schmidt, Bruno, Légaré, Francois, Marangos, J. P., Le, Anh -Thu, and Bhardwaj, Ravi. Femtosecond Laser Mass Spectrometry and High Harmonic Spectroscopy of Xylene Isomers. United States: N. p., 2018.
Web. doi:10.1038/s41598-018-22055-9.
Alharbi, Abdullah, Boguslavskiy, Andrey E., Austin, Dane, Thiré, Nicolas, Wood, D., Hawkins, P., McGrath, Felicity, Johnson, A. S., Lopez-Quintas, I., Schmidt, Bruno, Légaré, Francois, Marangos, J. P., Le, Anh -Thu, & Bhardwaj, Ravi. Femtosecond Laser Mass Spectrometry and High Harmonic Spectroscopy of Xylene Isomers. United States. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-018-22055-9
Alharbi, Abdullah, Boguslavskiy, Andrey E., Austin, Dane, Thiré, Nicolas, Wood, D., Hawkins, P., McGrath, Felicity, Johnson, A. S., Lopez-Quintas, I., Schmidt, Bruno, Légaré, Francois, Marangos, J. P., Le, Anh -Thu, and Bhardwaj, Ravi. Wed .
"Femtosecond Laser Mass Spectrometry and High Harmonic Spectroscopy of Xylene Isomers". United States. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-018-22055-9. https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1500098.
@article{osti_1500098,
title = {Femtosecond Laser Mass Spectrometry and High Harmonic Spectroscopy of Xylene Isomers},
author = {Alharbi, Abdullah and Boguslavskiy, Andrey E. and Austin, Dane and Thiré, Nicolas and Wood, D. and Hawkins, P. and McGrath, Felicity and Johnson, A. S. and Lopez-Quintas, I. and Schmidt, Bruno and Légaré, Francois and Marangos, J. P. and Le, Anh -Thu and Bhardwaj, Ravi},
abstractNote = {Structural isomers, molecules having the same chemical formula but with atoms bonded in different order, are hard to identify using conventional spectroscopy and mass spectrometry. They exhibit virtually indistinguishable mass spectra when ionized by electrons. Laser mass spectrometry based on photoionization of the isomers has emerged as a promising alternative but requires shaped ultrafast laser pulses. Here we use transform limited femtosecond pulses to distinguish the isomers using two methods. First, we probe doubly charged parent ions with circularly polarized light. We show that the yield of doubly charged ortho-xylene decreases while para-xylene increases over a range of laser intensities when the laser polarization is changed from linear to circular. Second, we probe high harmonic generation from randomly oriented isomer molecules subjected to an intense laser field. Here we show that the yield of high-order harmonics varies with the positioning of the methyl group in xylene isomers (ortho-, para- and meta-) and is due to differences in the strength of tunnel ionization and the overlap between the angular peaks of ionization and photo-recombination.},
doi = {10.1038/s41598-018-22055-9},
journal = {Scientific Reports},
number = 1,
volume = 8,
place = {United States},
year = {2018},
month = {2}
}
Web of Science
Figures / Tables:

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Works referencing / citing this record:
Real-Time Distinguishing of the Xylene Isomers Using Photoionization and Dissociation Mass Spectra Obtained by Femtosecond Laser Mass Spectrometry (FLMS)
journal, July 2019
- Kepceoğlu, Abdullah; Gündoğdu, Yasemin; Ledingham, Kenneth William David
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Real-Time Distinguishing of the Xylene Isomers Using Photoionization and Dissociation Mass Spectra Obtained by Femtosecond Laser Mass Spectrometry (FLMS)
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Figures / Tables found in this record: