Time-resolved photoelectron diffraction imaging of methanol photodissociation involving molecular hydrogen ejection
ROYAL SOCIETY OF CHEMISTRY
Pysyvä osoite
Verkkojulkaisu
Tiivistelmä
Imaging ultrafast atomic and molecular hydrogen motion with femtosecond time resolution is a challenge for ultrafast spectroscopy due to the low mass and small scattering cross section of the moving neutral hydrogen atoms and molecules. Here, we propose time- and momentum-resolved photoelectron diffraction (TMR-PED) as a way to overcome limitations of existing methodologies and illustrate its performance using a prototype molecular dissociation process involving the sequential ejection of a neutral hydrogen molecule and a proton from the methanol dication. By combining state-of-the-art molecular dynamics and electron-scattering methods, we show that TMR-PED allows for direct imaging of hydrogen atoms in action. More specifically, the fingerprint of hydrogen dynamics reflects the time evolution of polarization-averaged molecular-frame photoelectron angular distributions (PA-MFPADs) as would be recorded in X-ray pump/X-ray probe experiments with few-femtosecond resolution. We present the results of two precursor experiments that support the feasibility of this approach.We explore time- and momentum-resolved photoelectron diffraction imaging (TMR-PED) to visualize hydrogen dynamics during methanol dication dissociation. Our approach allows real-time tracking of hydrogen migration and molecular fragmentation.