Issue 18, 2020

Penning spectroscopy and structure of acetylene oligomers in He nanodroplets

Abstract

Embedded atoms or molecules in a photoexcited He nanodroplet are well-known to be ionized through inter-atomic relaxation in a Penning process. In this work, we investigate the Penning ionization of acetylene oligomers occurring from the photoexcitation bands of He nanodroplets. In close analogy to conventional Penning electron spectroscopy by thermal atomic collisions, the n = 2 photoexcitation band plays the role of the metastable atomic 1s2s 3,1S He*. This facilitates electron spectroscopy of acetylene aggregates in the sub-Kelvin He environment, providing the following insight into their structure: the molecules in the dopant cluster are loosely bound van der Waals complexes rather than forming covalent compounds. In addition, this work reveals a Penning process stemming from the n = 4 band where charge-transfer from autoionized He in the droplets is known to be the dominant relaxation channel. This allows for excited states of the remnant dopant oligomer Penning-ions to be studied. Hence, we demonstrate Penning ionization electron spectroscopy of doped droplets as an effective technique for investigating dopant oligomers which are easily formed by attachment to the host cluster.

Graphical abstract: Penning spectroscopy and structure of acetylene oligomers in He nanodroplets

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
07 Feb 2020
Accepted
20 Apr 2020
First published
21 Apr 2020

Phys. Chem. Chem. Phys., 2020,22, 10149-10157

Penning spectroscopy and structure of acetylene oligomers in He nanodroplets

S. Mandal, R. Gopal, M. Shcherbinin, A. D’Elia, H. Srinivas, R. Richter, M. Coreno, B. Bapat, M. Mudrich, S. R. Krishnan and V. Sharma, Phys. Chem. Chem. Phys., 2020, 22, 10149 DOI: 10.1039/D0CP00689K

To request permission to reproduce material from this article, please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

If you are an author contributing to an RSC publication, you do not need to request permission provided correct acknowledgement is given.

If you are the author of this article, you do not need to request permission to reproduce figures and diagrams provided correct acknowledgement is given. If you want to reproduce the whole article in a third-party publication (excluding your thesis/dissertation for which permission is not required) please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

Read more about how to correctly acknowledge RSC content.

Social activity

Spotlight

Advertisements