New publication on strong laser-induced alignment of microsolvated-molecule clusters
15 March, 2018
Our publication entitled "Strong laser alignment of solvent-solute aggregates in the gas-phase" has been published in the Journal of Chemical Physics.
We demonstrated strong quasi-adiabatic laser alignment of the indole-water-dimer clusters, a prototypical solvated-molecule system. The clusters were separated by the electrostatic deflector from a "soup" of clusters formed in a cold molecular beam. A strong 500 ps laser pulse was used to 3D align the clusters and fix the molecular plane of the indole moiety to the laboratory frame. Molecular frame photoelectron distributions of the clusters were recorded and are discussed in terms of the most probable leaving angle.
Our results demonstrate the ability to strongly control the orientation of micro-solvated molecular aggregates. This opens up possibilities to study photo-induced ultrafast chemical dynamics of small compound systems through atomically resolved imaging of half-collisions in the molecular frame.