Abstract
In recent years, free-electron lasers operating in the true X-ray regime have opened up access to the femtosecond-scale dynamics induced by deep inner-shell ionization. We have investigated charge creation and transfer dynamics in the context of molecular Coulomb explosion of a single molecule, exposed to sequential deep inner-shell ionization within an ultrashort (10 fs) X-ray pulse. The target molecule was CH3I, methane sensitized to X-rays by halogenization with a heavy element, iodine. Time-of-flight ion spectroscopy and coincident ion analysis was employed to investigate, via the properties of the atomic fragments, single-molecule charge states of up to +22. Experimental findings have been compared with a parametric model of simultaneous Coulomb explosion and charge transfer in the molecule. The study demonstrates that including realistic charge dynamics is imperative when molecular Coulomb explosion experiments using short-pulse facilities are performed.
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 2944-2949 |
Number of pages | 6 |
Journal | Journal of Physical Chemistry Letters |
Volume | 6 |
Issue number | 15 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - 2015 Aug 6 |
Keywords
- Coulomb explosion
- X-ray free-electron laser
- charge transfer
- multiphoton multiple ionization
- ultrafast dynamics
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Materials Science(all)
- Physical and Theoretical Chemistry