Photoelectron angular distributions from resonant two-photon ionization of adiabatically aligned naphthalene and aniline molecules

Arlt, Jacqueline; Singh, Dhirendra P.; Thompson, James O.F.; Chatterley, Adam S.; Hockett, Paul; Stapelfeldt, Henrik; Reid, Katharine L.

Abstract

Photoelectron images have been measured following the ionisation of aligned distributions of gas phase naphthalene and aniline molecules. Alignment in the adiabatic regime was achieved by interaction with a 100 ps infrared laser pulse, with ionisation achieved in a two-photon resonant scheme using a low intensity UV pulse of ∼6 ps duration. The resulting images are found to exhibit anisotropy that increases when the alignment pulse is present, with the aniline PADs peaking along the polarisation vector of the ionising light and the naphthalene PADs developing a characteristic four-lobed structure. Photoelectron angular distributions (PADs) that result from the ionisation of unaligned and fully aligned distributions of molecules are calculated using the ePolyScat ab initio suite and converted into two-dimensional photoelectron images. In the case of naphthalene excellent agreement is observed between experiment and the simulation for the fully aligned distribution, showing that the alignment step allows us to probe the molecular frame, but in the case of aniline it is clear that additional processes occur following the one-photon resonant step.

Citation

Arlt, J., Singh, D. P., Thompson, J. O., Chatterley, A. S., Hockett, P., Stapelfeldt, H., & Reid, K. L. (2021). Photoelectron angular distributions from resonant two-photon ionization of adiabatically aligned naphthalene and aniline molecules. Molecular Physics, 119(1-2), Article e1836411. https://doi.org/10.1080/00268976.2020.1836411

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Oct 6, 2020
• Online Publication Date: Oct 22, 2020
• Publication Date: Jan 31, 2021
• Deposit Date: Oct 8, 2020
• Publicly Available Date: Oct 22, 2020
• Journal: Molecular Physics
• Print ISSN: 0026-8976
• Publisher: Taylor and Francis
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 119
• Issue: 1-2
• Article Number: e1836411
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/00268976.2020.1836411
• Public URL: https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/4947325
• Publisher URL: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/00268976.2020.1836411
• Additional Information: This is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis in Molecular Physics on 22 October 2020, available online: http://www.tandfonline.com/10.1080/00268976.2020.1836411.