Helen Bieker successfully defended her doctoral thesis

In her thesis, Helen investigated the smallest drop of water, the water dimer, to study the nature of hydrogen bonding in water. Her work contains methods to prepare size-selected water dimers using an electric field, understand the behavior of water dimers in electric fields, and unravel the dissociation dynamics of water dimers. Experimentally, a rotationally cold and pure molecular beam containing water dimers was produced. Theoretically, she also studied the influence of non-rigidity of water dimer in the Stark energy shift by taking intermolecular vibrations into account. Furthermore, dynamics of strong-field-driven photodissociation of water dimers were investigated in her thesis using a slice imaging method, providing insights on charge or proton-transfer processes across the hydrogen bond in the cluster.

We at CMI wish Helen Bieker the very best for her future life and career.